Amendments to Calgary budget presented in heated council meeting

Thursday saw heated discussion in Calgary’s council chambers, as some councillors presented motions to amend the city’s budget.

Heading into meeting, a group of five councillors said they had over 20 changes to the budget aimed at reducing the proposed property tax hike of 3.6 per cent and saving taxpayers millions.

“Hopefully, between $60-80 million…You recognize that your property tax, that one per cent, is about $23 million, if we can get all $80 you are saving about 3.5 per cent,” said Ward 7 Coun. Terry Wong.

But as voting got underway, many of the motions were defeated.

Among those motions included asking the Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Operations Officer to find $2.5 million in savings in the budget and having a report done regarding hosting, meals, entertainment and travel expenses, with the aim at reducing them by 50 per cent in 2025.

City administration explained that Calgary is already quite lean compared to other cities in the country.

“From the left to the right, over 10 years, we’ve gone from a number of about 14 staff per thousand people to 13,” said Chief Administrative Officer, David Duckworth. “We are actually doing more with less.”

One of the motions Thursday that was ultimately passed was on using the city’s general reserve fund to fill a funding gap for an over-budget police gun range.

Ward 8 Coun. Courtney Walcott initiated the motion motion after the Calgary Police Commission proposed using funds meant for community programming to fill that hole.

Walcott’s motion also proposed having the city entirely responsible for that fund instead of police, prompting accusations of an attempt to “defund the police;” that part of the motion did not pass.

“Council made their decision, where I’m most disappointed is that council chose to use dog-whistle politics, instead of actually engaging in a discussion,” Walcott said.

Several other motions looked to tap into reserve funding to pay for initiatives without raising taxes, prompting concern among councillors about the long-term feasibility of the spending.

“I am worried, I’ll tell you why I’m worried. The more we are using this money as FSR (Fiscal Stability Reserve), the less we are going to have for the next council,” said Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp.

Other motions that passed Thursday included using $20 million in 2025 to improve Calgary’s road network from a reserve fund for future capital and $7.5 million in 2025 and again in 2026 from the city’s general reserve to allocate to unfunded recreation projects.

Budget deliberations continue on Friday.