It wasn't a typical budget week at Calgary city hall.

Council's annual budget week in November is usually just that—a week. The new city council was tasked with adjusting the final year of a four-year budget set by the previous city council, and will set its own four-year budget next year.

But instead of merely adjusting next year's budget, city council made some big changes over eight days—cutting the tax increase while spending heavily from city reserves. "It needs a redo," Mayor Jeromy Farkas said of the original budget. "That’s what Calgarians told us during the course of the election, that the priorities of this past council weren’t reflecting what they needed."

Council dropped the planned 2026 overall property tax increase from 3.6% to 1.64% largely through two moves: reallocating investment income from reserves to city operations, and cancelling the 1% tax shift from businesses onto residential taxpayers. (More details below.) Spending includes a $49.4M increase to Calgary police.

After amendments, council voted 12 - 3 to approve the 2026 budget. Councillors Jennifer Wyness, Mike Jamieson and Landon Johnston voted against.

Here is a list of select budget amendments, who put each one forward, what each one would do, and who voted for and against.

Chabot: Reverse transit fare freeze, boosting regular fares to $4
APPROVED 8-7
The budget proposed raising fares by $0.10 to $3.90; Ward 10 Councillor Andre Chabot's amendment brings it to $4. “If you want to increase the levels of service, and you want more cleanliness and better security, somehow you have to raise money to actually do that,” said Chabot. Operational services GM Doug Morgan told council “a regular adult market rider is going to pay $8 more a month” with the increases, which will be “very painful” for many Calgarians.

FOR: Jennifer Wyness, Andrew Yule, DJ Kelly, John Pantazopoulos, Andre Chabot, Mike Jamieson, Dan McLean, Landon Johnston

AGAINST: Jeromy Farkas, Kim Tyers, Raj Dhaliwal, Myke Atkinson, Nathaniel Schmidt, Harrison Clark, Rob Ward

Atkinson: Ongoing $6M boost for transit service
APPROVED 13 - 2
The budget originally had a $14M boost for the primary transit network (busy main routes), but no increase for base service (more infrequent routes). This amendment puts $5M more into base service and an additional $1M into the primary transit network. “If we're going to be doing things like increasing fares, I think it is our responsibility to make sure that this service keeps pace,” said Ward 7 Councillor Myke Atkinson. “I don't actually believe that this does that, to be honest. This is the maximum given our current bus capacity.” The next step, he said, is getting more buses.

FOR: Farkas, Tyers, Wyness, Yule, Kelly, Dhaliwal, Pantazopoulos, Atkinson, Schmidt, Clark, Chabot, Ward, Jamieson

AGAINST: McLean, Johnston

Dhaliwal: $11.25M for procuring new transit buses in 2026
APPROVED 8 - 7
An earlier amendment from Councillor Myke Atkinson, for $45M over three years which would buy about 45 new buses, was deferred by council to next year's budget. But Ward 5 Councillor Raj Dhaliwal warned against delay. "I think it's essential... that we keep this thing moving," said Dhaliwal. "Because we heard, based on RouteAhead, that there is a need to have more vehicles in our fleet for transit for growth."

FOR: Farkas, Yule, Kelly, Dhaliwal, Pantazopoulos, Atkinson, Schmidt, Clark

AGAINST: Tyers, Wyness, Chabot, Ward, Jamieson, McLean, Johnston

Chabot: Eliminate free transit fares for kids ages 6 - 12
DEFEATED 7 - 8
Free transit for this age group came into effect in 2023. “Our operators are struggling with this policy,” Calgary Transit director Sharon Fleming told council. “They are being walked by by individuals of all ages claiming to be under 12.” Drivers have little recourse. “We actually advise them against enforcing fares because they're at risk of assault,” Fleming said.

FOR: Farkas, Pantazopoulos, Chabot, Ward, Jamieson, McLean, Johnston

AGAINST: Tyers, Wyness, Yule, Kelly, Dhaliwal, Atkinson, Schmidt, Clark

Chabot: Eliminate CTrain downtown free fare zone
DEFEATED 7 - 8
Chabot said free transit downtown is “arguably a safe injection site for the downtown core.” Eliminating the CTrain free fare zone, he said, would boost fare revenue, which city hall could then put into transit safety. “We are in the process of already investigating or assessing the free fare zone,” Calgary Transit director Sharon Fleming told council.

FOR: Tyers, Wyness, Yule, Chabot, Jamieson, McLean, Johnston

AGAINST: Farkas, Kelly, Dhaliwal, Pantazopoulos, Atkinson, Schmidt, Clark, Ward

Pantazopoulos: Allocate one-time $9M to improving CTrain safety
APPROVED 9 - 6
This amendment focuses on more security and peace officers on CTrain stations during afternoon rush hour (4 - 8 p.m.)—using security staff until 30 more peace officers are hired, plus six community outreach officers. “When people feel safe on transit, they ride more,” said Ward 6 Councillor John Pantazopoulos. In 2024, council approved $15M in ongoing funding for transit safety, which included 53 new peace officers. “This is redundant,” said Councillor Jennifer Wyness of Pantazopoulos’s amendment.

FOR: Farkas, Yule, Kelly, Dhaliwal, Pantazopoulos, Atkinson, Schmidt, Clark, McLean

AGAINST: Tyers, Wyness, Ward, Chabot, Jamieson, Johnston

Atkinson: $7.5M for Vision Zero street safety improvements
APPROVED 13 - 2
Atkinson cited the high number of pedestrians hit and killed by drivers in Calgary so far in 2025. "We've had 35 fatal collisions, 14 of those have been pedestrian deaths," Atkinson said. "This is an investment in making sure that walkability in our neighbourhoods and pedestrian safety is at the forefront."

FOR: Farkas, Tyers, Wyness, Yule, Kelly, Dhaliwal, Pantazopoulos, Atkinson, Schmidt, Clark, Chabot, Jamieson, McLean

AGAINST: Ward, Johnston

Clark: $8.7M boost for Calgary Fire Department
APPROVED 15 - 0
Fire response times are being stretched as the city grows, council heard. “They are doing more with less,” said Ward 9 Councillor Harrison Clark, citing the “results of densification, continued addition of new communities on our fringe, and opioid crisis.” (More than half of the fire department’s work nowadays is medical calls.) The boost, said Clark, will “help fill critical gaps with equipment, training and ongoing vehicle repairs.”

FOR: Farkas, Tyers, Wyness, Yule, Kelly, Dhaliwal, Pantazopoulos, Atkinson, Schmidt, Clark, Chabot, Ward, Jamieson, McLean, Johnston

Wyness: Approve “Glacier A North” growth application with $24M for new fire hall
APPROVED 9 - 6
This amendment fast-tracks a development on the northwest edge of the city. “This needs to be approved now so that we can actually continue on the process of servicing the northwest quadrant,” said Ward 2 Councillor Jennifer Wyness. Asked which new areas need fire halls the most, fire chief Steve Dongworth named Rangeview in the southeast and Keystone in the northeast. Admin advised caution on the Glacier application. “Administration's recommendation is that this area is premature,” said planning director Kathy Davies Murphy. “It's not that it won't ever grow or build out. It's that the timing is premature.”

FOR: Farkas, Tyers, Wyness, Yule, Clark, Chabot, Ward, McLean, Johnston

AGAINST: Kelly, Dhaliwal, Pantazopoulos, Atkinson, Schmidt, Jamieson

Ward: Eliminate $2M boost for delivering city housing strategy
DEFEATED 7 - 8
“This is a responsible area to pause spending—and I stress the word pause—without undermining critical housing programs that are already in place,” said Ward 11 Councillor Rob Ward. The boost will allow the city’s housing team to hire 17 new full-time equivalent staff, largely to work toward the city’s goal of 3,000 new affordable non-market homes per year. There were about 300 new building permits for such housing in 2025 by the end of September, council heard from admin—up from about 120 in 2024.

FOR: Tyers, Wyness, Chabot, Ward, Jamieson, McLean, Johnston

AGAINST: Farkas, Yule, Kelly, Dhaliwal, Pantazopoulos, Atkinson, Schmidt, Clark

Wyness: Eliminate $40M downtown office-to-residential conversion program
DEFEATED 6 - 9
Ward 2 Councillor Jennifer Wyness described the program, which former mayor Jyoti Gondek championed, as a corporate bailout. Others agreed. “I see less and less the need for us to subsidize wealthy contractors and developers to build and convert buildings downtown,” said Councillor Dan McLean. Mayor Farkas countered that cutting the program would “halt a lot of the momentum that we've worked really hard to be able to gain, and it would really send the wrong signal at the wrong moment.” However, council decreased the program budget in subsequent amendments, reducing it to $35M and putting $10M of that into affordable housing (see amendment below).

FOR: Tyers, Wyness, Ward, Jamieson, McLean, Johnston

AGAINST: Farkas, Yuke, Kelly, Dhaliwal, Pantazopoulos, Atkinson, Schmidt, Clark, Chabot

Schmidt: Reallocate $10M from downtown office conversion program into non-market housing conversions
APPROVED 8 - 7
This is a new program started earlier this year specifically for downtown office conversion into non-market homes. “The units are 100% affordable,” chief housing officer Reid Hendry told council. “So they target Calgarian households that are making 65% of the median area income or less, with rents that are capped depending on the units that are provided.”

FOR: Farkas, Yule, Kelly, Dhaliwal, Pantazopoulos, Atkinson, Schmidt, Clark

AGAINST: Tyers, Wyness, Chabot, Ward, Jamieson, McLean, Johnston

Dhaliwal: $96.7M from reserves for new recreation facilities, including $65M for Northeast Athletic Complex
APPROVED 15 - 0
"Enough of recreation discrimination," said Ward 5 Councillor Raj Dhaliwal. "This is about people who live in the northeast who have been contributing to the city. The story of two cities east and west of Deerfoot has to end, and this is just the start of it with recreation." In addition to $65M for the northeast complex, $31.7M will go toward planning and design for nine other recreation facilities throughout the city.

FOR: Farkas, Tyers, Wyness, Yule, Kelly, Dhaliwal, Pantazopoulos, Atkinson, Schmidt, Clark, Chabot, Ward, Jamieson, McLean, Johnston

Johnston: Elimination of $2.7M community court expansion
DEFEATED 4 - 11
This is a court diversion program, launched in 2024, to help rehabilitate repeat offenders of city bylaws. "Soft on crime is not holding people accountable to their actions," said Ward 14 Councillor Landon Johnston. Mayor Farkas said the program isn’t soft on crime but smart, citing the “many low-level, high-frequency offences” rooted in mental health, addiction and homelessness: “Community court is what's needed to be able to connect those people to treatment, supervision, housing supports, so that these problems are addressed rather than just recycled back into our streets.”

FOR: Tyers, Jamieson, McLean, Johnston

AGAINST: Farkas, Wyness, Yule, Kelly, Dhaliwal, Pantazopoulos, Atkinson, Schmidt, Clark, Chabot, Ward

Schmidt: $1M for preliminary work to save the Old Y (Beltline YWCA building)
APPROVED 9 - 6
This is for security at the site and consulting work to see how the shuttered building could be rehabilitated. Ward 8 Councillor Nathaniel Schmidt emphasized that this is early work. "It's a symbol, but it is also a meaningful and small step forward towards us bringing this building back into a state where it can be used again," said Schmidt.

FOR: Farkas, Wyness, Yule, Kelly, Dhaliwal, Pantazopoulos, Atkinson, Schmidt, Clark

AGAINST: Tyers, Chabot, Ward, Jamieson, McLean, Johnston

Chabot: Cut $6M for mental health from base budget, make it one-time funding instead
APPROVED 9 - 6
City hall has repeatedly asked the province to fund Calgary’s mental health and addictions program with no response. “It's basically let the province off the hook by putting it into base funding,” Chabot said. Admin said this amendment would disrupt staffing at organizations who rely on program funding, since they can’t count on funding for more than a year. “Council, I'd ask that you not support this,” said Mayor Farkas. “We can't walk away from mental health and addictions funding.”

FOR: Tyers, Wyness, Yule, Kelly, Chabot, Ward, Jamieson, McLean, Johnston

AGAINST: Farkas, Dhaliwal, Pantazopoulos, Atkinson, Schmidt, Clark

Tyers: $9M cut from city climate department’s $38M budget
APPROVED 9-6
"This is a big win for city council," said Ward 1 Councillor Kim Tyers. "It shows that we're going to be fiscally responsible." This cut doesn’t affect regulatory responsibilities or flood mitigation, but will affect energy efficiency and water conservation programs for Calgarians that "help lower their utility bills,” said city climate director Nicole Newton. She said these programs will need to be wound down and/or scaled back.

FOR: Tyers, Wyness, Dhaliwal, Pantazopoulos, Chabot, Ward, Jamieson, McLean, Johnston

AGAINST: Farkas, Yule, Kelly, Clark, Atkinson, Schmidt

Chabot: Cancel the 1% tax shift
APPROVED 15 - 0
The previous council set a 1% annual “tax shift” from non-residential to residential taxpayers—an effort to rebalance property taxes after empty office towers downtown sent property taxes skyrocketing for businesses elsewhere. The non-residential to residential tax rate ratio will decline slightly in 2026 even without the tax shift, according to admin.

FOR: Farkas, Tyers, Wyness, Yule, Kelly, Dhaliwal, Pantazopoulos, Atkinson, Schmidt, Clark, Chabot, Ward, Jamieson, McLean, Johnston

Pantazopoulos: Allocate $50M of investment income for tax relief
APPROVED 11 - 4
This amendment takes $50M of investment income and instead of putting it into reserves, puts it into city operations. “The City of Calgary has more than enough financial capacity to invest in the projects that matter tomorrow while providing meaningful tax relief today,” said Pantazopoulos.

FOR: Farkas, Tyers, Yule, Kelly, Pantazopoulos, Schmidt, Clark, Chabot, Ward, Jamieson, McLean

AGAINST: Wyness, Dhaliwal, Atkinson, Johnston

Ward: Cut $9.5M from multiple city departments
DEFEATED 5 - 10
This amendment would have downsized “people, innovation & collaboration services” by $4.67M, “law, legislative services & security” by $1.67M, “corporate planning & financial services” by $2.17M, the chief operating office by $800,000, and the chief administrator’s office by $180,000. This would amount to a 2.4% ongoing cut. “These are the administrative and support functions within city hall, the parts of our organization that should be continually looking for better ways to operate,” said Councillor Rob Ward. “What I am asking for here is extremely modest.”

FOR: Tyers, Ward, Jamieson, McLean, Johnston

AGAINST: Farkas, Wyness, Yule, Kelly, Dhaliwal, Pantazopoulos, Atkinson, Schmidt, Clark, Chabot

Johnston: Cut $10M from city $24.6M software licensing budget
DEFEATED 1 - 14
“I'm not suggesting we remove the entire budget ask, but I'm saying let's reduce it a little bit so that we can have some time to investigate the subscriptions that we're being asked to fund,” said Councillor Landon Johnston. Admin told council “essentially we can't run the organization” without the software: “If you'd like to be able to purchase things to build our capital projects, if you’d like to run budget week, if you'd like to pay our employees, we need these licenses.” Councillor Rob Ward said the cut “is nearly impossible—at the very least, very risky.” However, after this vote, council voted 13 - 2 to direct administration to report back with further details on software subscription costs in early 2026.

FOR: Johnston

AGAINST: Farkas, Tyers, Wyness, Yule, Kelly, Dhaliwal, Pantazopoulos, Atkinson, Schmidt, Clark, Chabot, Ward, Jamieson, McLean

Jeremy Klaszus is founder and editor of The Sprawl.