Exploring Calgary’s 2026 budget
Acacia Carol, Layout Editor
With a new year, a new council and a new mayor, the City of Calgary has released its 2026 budget. With a primary focus on affordability, the 150-page budget has ambitious plans to deliver on the election promises made in October 2025.
Following city council approval, the 2026 budget outlined four specific areas of investment: transit, public safety, infrastructure and housing.
Infrastructure and housing are the largest areas targeted by this budget, with infrastructure receiving $201 million to support projects such as the maintenance of the Beltline YMCA. There will be $106 million will be invested in housing projects, including the downtown office-to-residential conversions. Carrying over, $1.1 billion has been previously allocated for water infrastructure.
Additionally, the budget cancels the planned one per cent property tax shift and reduces the tax increase as an affordability measure. By reducing the tax increase, the city reports that 2026 tax revenue fell from 3.6 per cent to 1.6 per cent.
Old problems
Lori Williams, associate professor of policy studies at Mount Royal University (MRU), says that the budget reflects a city council and mayor that is attempting to balance voter’s election concerns with Calgarian’s priorities.
“Clearly, this is a response to some of the pressure that the council came under in the election campaign,” Williams says. “There was a lot of discussion about managing taxpayer dollars, keeping costs under control.”
The new budget, which includes $17 billion towards long-term infrastructure planning from 2023-26, is under the rate of inflation.
However, facing the recent Bearspaw water main break, Williams says council is facing “tough discussions” on how to maintain aging infrastructure at a “very significant” expense.
This is the second time since the initial rupture in June 2024 that the City of Calgary has dealt with a crack from the Bearspaw water line. Council plans to use recommendations from a report conducted after the 2024 rupture to deal with the current break.
Williams says that it is crucial for council to have a plan to address aging infrastructure, even if it means looking for provincial or federal support.
“We see that they’re going to be using this rainy day fund to invest in the replacement of this water main,” Williams says. “Sooner or later, those savings run out. Municipalities have very limited revenue sources.”
Affordability answers
While the budget prioritises keeping life affordable for Calgarians, transit fares and fees for services such as recycling, garbage, and compost are increasing under the new budget. Taxes were not increased.
Students and young adults might be further impacted by the increases, with daily fares increasing from $3.80 to $4 and monthly passes rising from $118 to $126. Although it’s not a significant increase, Williams stresses that even a few dollars can make an impact for those already struggling.
“The reality is that most students are in situations where their housing costs, their transportation costs, their recreational costs, those all might go up as a result of some of the things that have been decided by this council,” she says.
Housing, in particular, is one area where the City of Calgary has been pushing to increase access and affordability. Within the new budget, the Home is Here housing strategy plans to address concerns through increasing the availability of affordable housing.
In addition to the planned downtown commercial office-to-residential conversions, the proposed housing measures include building 6,500 homes over the next 15 years, 260 of which are to be completed in Southview by 2028.
However, it’s unclear whether this will benefit students and young adults. Williams explains that even if downtown housing grows in availability, the cost of living, especially including transportation, might not create an effective solution.
“I think there are a few questions that we need answers to before we can fully say whether this is going to make a difference, and who it’s going to make a difference for,” she says.
New direction
Regardless, Williams says the current budget reflects a city council that has listened to voters’ concerns. Within the new budget, council will be looking into more favourable solutions to replace the 2024 blanket rezoning policy.
“It’s clear that people were unhappy with the current system and they’re going to have to try to explore and experiment with new systems,” she says.
In the proposed budget, the City of Calgary reports that Calgarians’ satisfaction has been on a downward trend since 2015, driven by the operational budget failing to “keep pace” with population growth and inflation.
The 2026 budget was finalised on Dec. 3, 2025, with city council voting 12:3 in favour.
