Transit gets more money, climate funding cut in Calgary’s 2026 budget

After spending the day Monday looking to make significant cuts to the proposed property tax increase Calgarians are set to pay in 2026, council used Tuesday to allocate additional fund to specific priorities.

Council approved a boost in funding for transit, voting in favor of providing $6 million in additional ongoing operating money to Calgary Transit for improving local neighbourhood routes and to help bring more frequent service through the Primary Transit network.

Officials also voted to spend $9 million in one-time funding from the city’s reserve fund aimed at improving safety on Calgary Transit.

“If we are going to be asking Calgarians to pay a little more for the service us as a council we better step up with better quality of service,” said Mayor Jeromy Farkas.

This comes as the adult single-use fare will increase from $3.80 to $4.00 next year.

The fare adjustment will affect more than single-use tickets. Monthly passes for adults and youths, ticket books, low-income transit passes, seniors’ passes, and even reserved parking fees are set to rise.

Recreation also scored a win Tuesday, with council voting to allocate $65 million towards the Northeast Athletic Complex, and nearly $32 million towards design work for other recreational facilities, with all those funds coming from different reserves.

“It’s great news, we are deficient on those kind of indoor facilities,” said Coun. Raj Dhaliwal. “We are a winter city, but we still don’t have enough.”

Even as the overall proposed property tax increase for 2026 currently sits below two per cent, some on council are looking to cut the budget even more.

A proposal to implement a 2.4 per cent spending cut across city administrative departments failed, but an amendment to cut $9 million in one-time operating funding for climate and the environment passed.

“What we were told is that they could continue to operate without that funding,” said Coun. Andre Chabot. “If we can reduce the cost on something specifically as it relates to climate emergency for an example, I’m all for adaptation and mitigation.”

Budget deliberations are set to enter their eighth day Wednesday as council continues amending the 2026 budget.

-With files from Hajar AlKhouzaii