Calgary council holds emergency meeting on provincial budget, property tax hike

Calgary city council held an emergency meeting on Wednesday to address a large jump in the provincial Education Property Tax, a move expected to add nearly $350 to the average homeowner’s annual bill.

Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas said he called the special meeting to make public information that had previously been shared only in a restricted briefing note to council.

“Much of the information should be public,” he said, adding that Calgarians “deserve transparency” as they face unprecedented tax pressures.

Farkas has called the province’s $500‑million rise in education requisitions, announced in Alberta’s latest budget, the largest property tax hike in the city’s history.

Calgary homeowners will see a 20 per cent increase in the provincial portion of their bill, compared with 11 per cent in Edmonton.

“When we look at the level of increase from the provincial portion versus the municipal portion, it’s absolutely appropriate for the public to understand the distinction,” he said.

The city’s chief financial officer, Les Tochor, told council that requisition changes vary widely across Alberta, from 7 per cent in Grande Prairie to 31 per cent in Chestermere. Calgary faces the second‑highest increase among cities.

Tochor said the calculations are based on last year’s equalized assessments, but Farkas questioned why Calgary is being “hammered twice as hard” as Edmonton, where the average homeowner will pay about $150 more.

Residents can use the city’s online tax calculator to estimate their individual increases.

What Calgary asked for and didn’t get

The city’s manager of government relations, Kelly Cote, outlined what Calgary had requested in its pre‑budget submission and what the province delivered.

She said the budget contained no specific mention of several major Calgary priorities, including:

• Calgary Transit operating and capital funding
• The Foothills Fieldhouse project
• The GamePLAN recreation strategy
• Matching the city’s $22‑million investment in mental health, addiction, and homelessness
• Funding for the Bearspaw feeder main, a key water‑supply project

Cote noted that while the budget includes new school projects and some previously committed capital funding, it also reduces the policing support grant by $3.1 million.

She added that a $443 million provincial fund for water and wastewater infrastructure is limited to municipalities under 45,000 people, leaving Calgary out entirely.

As for what to do moving forward, Farkas floated the idea of a plebiscite that would pose the question to Calgarians on what they’d like to see happen with the provincial property tax.