Calgary Minute: Issue 367

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

📅 This Week In Calgary: 📅

• The Infrastructure and Planning Committee meets tomorrow at 9:30 am, and one of the items on the agenda is an update on Calgary's water loss problem. Administration estimates that 23% of all treated water in 2025 never reached a paying customer. The loss rate has hovered between 20% and 24% since 2019, and an industry benchmark metric in 2025 indicated significant room for improvement. Administration's proposed solution is an Accelerated Water Loss Program targeting a reduction to approximately 15% loss and an improved score of 3 by 2030. To get there, Administration is requesting approximately $340 million in the 2027-2030 budget cycle - nearly double the investment from the 2023-2026 cycle - covering expanded leak detection, additional flow meters, and accelerated water main replacements. The Committee will also receive annual progress reports tracking results against those targets. Hopefully, when they say Accelerated Water Loss Program, they mean that the Program will be accelerated, not the Water Loss!
  
  
• Also on Tuesday's agenda is an update on Scotia Place, the event centre being built to replace the Saddledome, and the surrounding Culture and Entertainment District infrastructure. As of this report, 37.4% of the project budget has been spent, and 95.4% has been contractually committed - meaning almost all contract obligations are locked in while only about a third of the money has flowed out the door. Several key financial documents, including the detailed funding summary and risk summary, are being kept confidential, limiting the public picture of the project's financial health. Administration does flag "market escalation pressures" as an active risk, however, noting that higher-than-forecasted labour and material costs are affecting the construction industry broadly. The facility is still tracking for a fall 2027 opening, and construction has separately begun on a new underpass beneath the CPKC Rail at 6 Street SE, which is scheduled to open in fall 2028.
  
  
• City Council voted 10-5 to officially rescind Calgary's climate emergency declaration adopted in 2021, making Calgary the first City in Canada and one of only a handful of cities in the world to formally undo such a declaration. The motion, brought forward by Ward 14 Councillor Landon Johnston and Ward 10 Councillor Andre Chabot, went further than simply rescinding the declaration: it also directed that all references to a "climate emergency" be removed from official city documents, strategies, plans, reports, and website materials, and that no future reports or policies may cite the rescinded declaration as justification. Councillor Johnston described the declaration as "primarily symbolic" and argued it "has done absolutely nothing." Mayor Farkas compared the climate emergency declaration to temporary declarations like the 2013 flood declaration that are eventually lifted.  Councillors Andrew Yule, D.J. Kelly, Nathaniel Schmidt, Raj Dhaliwal, and Myke Atkinson cast the five dissenting votes, with Councillor Atkinson arguing that rescinding the declaration "sends a pretty poor message to other folks outside of the city."
  
  
• Council also voted 9-6 to defer any decision on the downtown transit Free Fare Zone until early 2027, after weeks of public debate. Administration will conduct a comprehensive fare review, safety assessment, and business analysis in the first quarter of 2027, with a final decision to follow the approval of the 2027-2030 four-year budget. TD Bank ended its sponsorship of the zone in November 2025, leaving the City without a funding partner for the program. Ward 13 Councillor Dan McLean argued that the zone attracts individuals with mental health and addiction issues who then transit to the suburbs, and called for its elimination on safety grounds. Mayor Farkas opposed cancellation outright, while Administration itself warned that eliminating the zone would likely disperse rather than eliminate social disorder issues. The fare review will also determine how transit fares are structured across the broader system.
  
  
• A Probe Research survey of 595 Calgarians conducted in late April and early May found Mayor Jeromy Farkas has an 81% approval rating, individual Councillors are averaging 73% favourable, and City Council overall is at 69% - a sharp reversal from the historically low confidence levels seen under the previous Council. Trust in the City of Calgary as an institution jumped from 38% in 2023 to 54% currently, and nearly 60% of respondents said Calgary is heading in the right direction. Data analyst Robson Fletcher described the results as an "extended honeymoon period" since last fall's election. Affordability and housing costs were the top concerns cited by residents, followed by crime and safety, and homelessness..

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