City council approved the 2026 property tax bylaws on Tuesday, which set the year’s property tax rates — and Calgary homeowners can expect to pay an average of 8.1 per cent more than last year.

Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas attributed the property tax hike in large part to the province’s budget decisions earlier this year, with Alberta’s share of property taxes rising by nearly 20 per cent for the average homeowner.

“Right now, we know that Calgarians are over-taxed. We are paying way more into property taxes than we receive back here in this province,” Farkas said to reporters on Tuesday.

The city raised its portion of property taxes by 1.2 per cent for both residential and non-residential properties, whittled down from the 1.6 per cent increase council discussed in budget deliberations last year. City officials said the slight drop is due to more new housing coming online than expected.

Still, the provincial portion of property taxes has spiked by 19.8 per cent for residential properties this year, and 8.8 per cent for non-residential.

“The difference between the city portion of the property tax and the provincial portion of the property taxes is jarring,” Farkas said.

For a typical single-family home assessed at $706,000 in 2026, city officials estimate an annual increase of nearly $390. That total includes $49, or 1.8 per cent, from the municipal portion, and an additional $338, or 21 per cent, from the province.

Given the tax hike and surging oil prices — sparked by the U.S. and Israel’s attacks on Iran — Farkas is asking the province to table a revised budget with more funding for Calgary.

“Seeing what’s happening in the Middle East, the significant boon that the province has brought in, we’re expecting a fair share of that to be extended to all municipalities as well as Calgary to get its fair share as well,” he said.

“So we’re hoping for a revised, tabled budget document with amendments to be able to reflect that.”

Soaring oil prices won’t change budget: province

In a statement to CBC News, Marisa Warner, the press secretary for Alberta’s finance minister, said a few weeks of strong oil prices are not enough to offset an entire year.

She added that the budget is based on conservative assumptions using sustained average oil prices over the full fiscal year, not short-term spikes.

“Nothing in Budget 2026 has yet to be impacted by the current high oil prices because … we are not within that fiscal timeframe,” said Warner. “Regardless, surpluses aren’t a discretionary pool that can simply be reallocated on demand.”

Just under 42 per cent of Calgarians’ residential property taxes go to the province. The rest is used within the municipality, contributing to the city’s public infrastructure, parks and the Calgary Police Service, among other uses.

In total, Calgary will remit over $1.2 billion in property taxes to the province, which is about 20 per cent more than the tax demanded last year.

The city said that makes it the highest amount collected of any Alberta municipality classified as a city on a per capita basis.

Ward 4 Coun. DJ Kelly said Calgary has massive spending needs, just like the province, and he’ll be watching closely to see how local homeowners respond.

“At the end of the day, the City of Calgary has a massive infrastructure deficit that we need to make some significant progress on in the next few years. A lot of our established communities need paving on roads, recreation centres, new playgrounds — those things all cost money,” he said.

“Certainly, if we don’t see Calgarians getting upset about the province increasing their property taxes, that maybe gives us a little bit of licence to do things a bit faster than what we originally thought,” he said.

According to the city, property tax bills will be mailed out in May and payments are due by June 30, for those who pay a lump sum once a year.

Calgarians can receive an estimate of their 2026 property tax bill on the city’s website.