Calgary Minute: Issue 326

Calgary Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Calgary politics

📅 This Week In Calgary: 📅

• Calgary has surpassed 20,000 registered legal secondary suites, a milestone City officials say is due to incentives and streamlined permitting. Since 2022, registrations have grown rapidly, with 10,000 new suites added and a 60% increase in just the past year. The City’s Secondary Suite Incentive Program, launched in 2024, offers up to $10,000 per homeowner and has already committed $39 million to about 3,200 suites. Secondary suites are increasingly being built directly into new homes, with numbers tripling between 2022 and 2024. Despite this, Calgary still faces a projected shortage of 42,000 housing units due to rapid population growth and high demand. The City says that expanding secondary suites is just one piece of a larger housing strategy.
  
  
• Speaking of housing, a Calgary residents’ group has taken its fight against the City’s blanket rezoning policy to the Alberta Court of Appeal after losing an earlier case in the Court of King’s Bench. The group argues that Council’s approval process was biased, unfair, and ignored citizens’ rights, particularly by limiting opportunities for neighbourhood input on land-use decisions. The rezoning, passed in May 2024, changed most residential areas to an R-CG district, allowing duplexes, rowhouses, and fourplexes without requiring individual rezoning hearings. City officials say the change is part of Calgary’s housing strategy to increase supply and affordability, while reducing sprawl. Critics, however, believe it will harm community character, worsen traffic, and primarily benefit developers without delivering more affordable housing. A public hearing on the rezoning drew thousands of submissions and over 730 speakers, with about 70% opposed. Despite the controversy, Council passed the policy with some amendments, and the City says it has already enabled hundreds of new housing units since its introduction. The Court of Appeal will now determine whether the City’s approach to blanket rezoning was legally and procedurally sound.
  
  
• Mayor Jyoti Gondek is urging Prime Minister Mark Carney to declare the proposed Prairie Economic Gateway an official project of national interest, which would allow it to move through Ottawa’s fast-track approval process. The plan calls for a massive inland port on Calgary’s southeastern edge, developed in partnership with Rocky View County and Shepard Development Construction, and connected to CPKC rail lines. City officials say the project is shovel-ready and could add more than $7 billion to the economy while creating up to 30,000 jobs during construction. Both Calgary and Rocky View County Councils have already approved the development. The federal designation being sought stems from the Carney government’s recently passed One Canadian Economy Act, designed to speed up major projects in the face of US tariffs. Local Liberal MP Corey Hogan has called the proposal a strong candidate for consideration, noting Calgary’s role as a hub for goods movement. Mayor Gondek has already raised the idea with Carney during his Stampede visit and is seeking another meeting to push the project forward.
  
  
• The Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) has rejected ENMAX's plan to replace part of an underground transmission line in northeast Calgary with overhead power lines, citing inadequate consultation with residents. The proposal would have placed 28-metre steel poles through Winston Heights-Mountview, sparking concerns about property values, sightlines, and impacts on nearby parks. While residents welcomed the denial, many remain uneasy as the AUC also rejected the alternative underground option due to its $50.6-million cost to ratepayers. Community members believe ENMAX will return with another proposal in the next year, meaning the fight may not be over. Some residents felt the Commission’s ruling didn’t fully address their concerns about living near a high-voltage line. ENMAX has said it respects the decision and will work to improve its engagement process as it explores next steps. The aging transmission line, now about 50 years old, still needs replacement, leaving uncertainty over what comes next. For now, residents are calling for more meaningful consultation before any new plan moves forward.
  
  
• The federal government and the City of Calgary are investing a combined $75 million into converting the aging 606 Fourth office tower into housing. The project will transform the 15-storey downtown building into 166 rental units, 45 of which will be designated as affordable. Once completed by the end of 2027, it will accommodate about 266 residents in a mix of studio, one-, and two-bedroom apartments, including 17 accessible units. The redevelopment will also feature co-working spaces, fitness facilities, communal areas, and an outdoor patio. Officials say the project supports the City’s broader goal of repurposing six million square feet of vacant office space into housing by 2031. While demand for the affordable units is expected to be high, the City is still developing a system for how leases will be allocated. 
  
  
• Calgary has lost its hosting rights for the 2027 North American Indigenous Games (NAIG) due to disputes between the local hosting society and Tourism Calgary. The hosting society claimed that Tourism Calgary withheld promised operational funding, leaving them unable to plan the event as intended and citing broader systemic barriers affecting Indigenous self-determination. Tourism Calgary, however, argued that the host society failed to meet key milestones and conditions set by the NAIG Council and its funding partners. The Games, which were originally awarded to Calgary in 2023, were expected to bring over 8,000 athletes from 756 First Nations and generate significant economic benefits for the city. The hosting society criticized the decision as a setback for reconciliation in sport and culture but plans to rebrand and create a new, fully Indigenous-led sporting event. Calgary’s 2027 Games would have marked a symbolic return of the event to Alberta, where it originated over three decades ago.

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