Calgary’s mayor says it’s a benefit to the community — but the constant conversation surrounding the city’s low-income transit pass causes too much uncertainty.

Jeromy Farkas says he’s written a letter to the Alberta government, hoping to figure out a new way to fund the program.

The low-income transit pass program uses a sliding scale system that assigns a purchase price based on income. The less an applicant earns, the less they will need to pay.

Calgary offers three levels of discounts: 95 per cent, 65 per cent and 50 per cent. In 2025, the program cost the city $58 million.

Provincial funding of $6.3 million covered slightly more than 10 per cent of that figure.

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“Initially this was a partnership — it was a cost sharing arrangement. Right now we see about 10 per cent of the cost coming from the provincial government and the remainder comes from the municipal government… that’s just not fair,” Farkas told reporters outside council chambers on Tuesday.

Earlier in the morning, Farkas confirmed he sent a letter to Alberta Transportation Minister Jason Nixon in February.

“To ensure long-term, sustainable funding, the City of Calgary is seeking a more predictable and enhanced provincial funding commitment … including exploring longer-term finance and governing models,” Farkas said.

Farkas added he’s received no response from the provincial Transportation Ministry since the letter was sent on Feb. 12.

“Frankly there’s a human element to it,” Farkas added. “Every single year, Calgarians worry about whether this program will be discontinued. This is essential infrastructure – it’s an essential service.”

“It’s completely unfair to ask Calgarians to come to our budget proceedings every single November to share their personal stories. It’s incredibly hard, it’s incredibly vulnerable to come to city council to essentially beg for this service to be continued.”

The 2025 city budget, approved in December 2025 by the newly elected council, included a $76-million funding boost for Calgary Transit to improve frequency across the system, purchase new buses and expand funding for the low-income transit pass program.

The program is typically a part of budget deliberations at Calgary city hall each year, but Farkas hopes a multi-year approach could provide more certainty moving forward.

Global News has reached out to Nixon’s office but has not yet received a response.

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Alberta’s newly-tabled budget, and its impact on local property taxes, is facing criticism from Calgary council and the city’s mayor, who is calling for more transparency around how the money will be spent.

On Thursday, the provincial government unveiled its budget with a second straight increase to the education property tax rate to generate $3.6 billion; $1.2 billion of that has been requisitioned from the City of Calgary.

New city data shows the move means that 42 cents of every property tax dollar collected in Calgary will go to the provincial government.

At a press conference Friday, Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas expressed his disappointment in the budget’s impact on city taxpayers.

“It is looking a lot like Calgary’s deal in Alberta is very similar to what Danielle Smith says Alberta’s deal is in Canada,” Farkas said. “But, for us, we want to come to the table, we want to be collaborative, we want to work with the provincial government.”

Although Farkas noted some “positives” in the budget, including funding for affordable housing and for maintenance for seniors homes, he questioned what Calgarians are getting back from the money sent to the province.

The increase is expected to cost the typical Calgary homeowner an extra $340 this year.

In comparison, city council whittled down the property tax increase in its budget back in December to 1.6 per cent, which is expected to cost the average homeowner an extra $54 in 2026.

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“We did the work,” Farkas told reporters. “To have a scale of increase 10 times the tax increase being lobbed by the provincial government in a single year without any kind of head start or notice, that is just incredibly egregious.”

The provincial budget does include billions of dollars in continued and previously-announced investments for Calgary, including ongoing funding for the Green Line LRT, upgrades to Deerfoot Trail, and the infrastructure around the new event centre, as well as $67 million over three years for the city’s court of appeal, and $10 million for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Other provincial facilities in the city also saw a boost, including the Foothills Medical Centre Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the Calgary Radiopharmaceutical Centre, the Alberta Kidney Care, Bethany Continuing Care Centre and the Bridgeland Riverside Continuing Care Centre.

However, Farkas said it was “sobering” the budget didn’t include a mention of the Prairie Economic Gateway project, or the Bearspaw feeder main, which has prompted an emergency replacement after two critical ruptures in less than two years.

“If there wasn’t a huge tax increase, I wouldn’t be expecting add-ons for the City of Calgary,” Farkas said.

Finance minister Nate Horner defended the tax hike during a post-budget address to an audience of the city’s business community at a luncheon hosted by the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.

Horner said the increase is to help fund a third of the education ministry’s operating budget, which was telegraphed in last year’s budget.

“We didn’t want to put it all onto folks in one year, so we staggered it over two,” Horner said. “I’m surprised that everyone is this surprised, to be honest.”

Horner told the audience that the education budget is $10.8 billion this year, and the construction of new schools is “dominating” the provincial capital budget.

He said out of 40 new schools announced this year, 14 will be in Calgary.

While the investment and new schools are welcomed,  Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot, who was also in attendance at the event, said the funding is addressing matters that fall under provincial jurisdiction.

“The majority of the things he was talking about are things that fall under provincial obligations, not municipal obligations,” Chabot said. “He didn’t talk about water infrastructure for the City of Calgary, he talked about infrastructure, alright, but provincial infrastructure.”

Chabot said the budget is “seriously lacking” in support for municipal infrastructure.

Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean said the property tax increase will be challenging to stomach for some residents.

“This is going to be a really tough sell to Calgarians,” McLean said. “I think it’s very important that we let our residents know what the province is requesting from them and what the city is taking from them, because this is a large increase.”

Farkas said city council will be discussing measures to respond to the property tax increase, which could include sending two separate property tax bills to Calgarians.

Late Friday, Farkas called a special council meeting on March 4 for that debate.

In comparison, the education property tax requisition is nearly $640 million in Edmonton, which is expected to cost the typical homeowner in that city an extra $154 this year.

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After two pedestrians were killed over the Family Day long weekend, Calgary city councillors are awaiting a response from the provincial government to find new measures to help improve traffic safety.

A toddler in a stroller was killed after being hit in a marked crosswalk in the city’s southwest Sunday afternoon, and a senior was also struck in a marked crosswalk less than 24 hours later in northwest Calgary.

They were Calgary’s seventh and eighth fatal collisions in 2026 — a concerning trend, according to the Calgary Police Service, after 38 fatal crashes were recorded in 2025 including the deaths of 15 pedestrians.

“We did see an increase overall last year so to see the year start at this volume is definitely concerning for how the rest of it is going to go,” said A/Insp. Shelby Stewart told reporters Monday.

1:53
New photo radar rules in effect in Alberta

During city council’s meeting Tuesday morning, Ward 3 Coun. Andrew Yule asked the mayor about any progress in advocating the provincial government to restore photo radar enforcement.

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Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas said he spoke with Alberta Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen late last year about improving traffic safety, but is waiting for a response to a formal letter he sent the minister on Feb 12.

In that letter, Farkas said the removal of photo radar “has led to an upswing in speed-related collisions,” noting there were more than 900 pedestrian collisions and 27 fatalities between 2024 and 2025, which he said is a “critical public safety crisis.”

Farkas called on the province to restore the municipal share of traffic fine revenue, which was clawed back in 2020, as well as a review of the decision to restrict photo radar enforcement.

According to Farkas, any restored revenue would be allocated to traffic-safety improvements, including safer intersections, crosswalk upgrades, school-zone protections, and traffic-calming measures.

“That’s the way I think this solves the problem, it takes the politics out of the issue and lowers the heat,” Farkas told reporters. “If the fine revenue is being earmarked specifically for road safety improvements, it makes a lot more sense to me as a Calgarian, and I think we can help build the case with the public that this isn’t just another cash grab.”

Farkas said the move could unlock upwards of $30 million annually for the city to invest in traffic safety.

In a statement to Global News, Dreeshen said the province, “has no plans to expand photo radar beyond the current framework.”

“I am scheduling a meeting with Mayor Farkas in the coming weeks to discuss support for safer streets through targeted infrastructure improvements,” Dreeshen said in a statement.

“Our government established the $13 million Traffic Safety Fund, which municipalities can access to improve high-risk intersections through measures like better signage, signal timing, lighting, and road redesign.”

During budget deliberations last year, city council approved funding for each ward to install two new rectangular rapid flashing beacons at a location of their choice.

Another $7.5 million was also approved to fund traffic and pedestrian safety improvements in the city’s Vision Zero plan, which aims to reduce traffic injuries and fatalities by 25 per cent by 2028 through street design and crosswalk improvements.

Yule told reporters that city council is aligned in its goal to invest in pedestrian safety

“We’ve got our four-year budget coming up and you’re going to see a lot of investment from our side,” Yule said.

“Definitely looking for other levels of government to make sure that we have all the tools at our disposal.”

1:58
Calgary police issue nearly 26,000 fewer speeding tickets since photo radar ban announced

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The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has written to the City of Calgary to provide clarity on how council’s upcoming decision to repeal citywide rezoning could impact federal housing funds.

It comes as the city’s Infrastructure and Planning Committee meeting was presented a report Wednesday that said CMHC “may deem” the City of Calgary to be non-compliant with the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) Contribution Agreement if city council fully repeals citywide rezoning.

Calgary was awarded $251.3 million, including top-ups, from the federal Housing Accelerator Fund, with $122.9 million allocated so far. The next instalment of the fund is set for the end of March 2026.

In the statement sent to city administration and councillors, obtained by Global News, CMHC said Calgary agreed it “would eliminate exclusionary zoning city-wide,” and enable a variety of missing middle housing types.

“In order to remain compliant with the agreement, any updated zoning must not reintroduce exclusionary (single family only) zoning, allow for at least four units on a lot across the city without additional approvals, and must not reintroduce approval processes or other barriers that slow down development,” CMHC said in its note to the city.

CMHC said it looks forward to working with Calgary on “options to achieve this” in the coming weeks.

Calgary city council is set to hold a public hearing March 23 on whether it should repeal citywide rezoning, but the issue has created an ongoing back and forth about whether the city’s federal housing funding would be affected by the decision.

City councillors are interpreting CMHC’s statement differently, with Ward 4 Coun. DJ Kelly saying he believes Calgary’s HAF funding will be terminated if citywide rezoning is fully repealed.

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“Throughout this entire process we’ve been waiting to hear back from the federal government about what their take is on it,” Ward 4 Coun. DJ Kelly said.

“Planning decisions need to be made for planning reasons, but that being said, we as a council need to sit down and figure out what that answer really means for us.”

1:55
Calgary requires at least $5.7B over next 10 years for critical infrastructure 

Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean, however, said he doesn’t think the funding will be impacted if council moves ahead with repealing the policy.

“Nowhere in that agreement does it say that the funding is tied to exclusionary zoning or four units as a right. It doesn’t say that anywhere in there, in my interpretation of the agreement,” McLean told reporters Wednesday.

In its report to committee, city administration highlighted two initiatives in the agreement that CMHC could interpret as the city no longer satisfying if citywide rezoning is repealed, including “undertake city-initiated redesignations to streamline approvals to increase housing supply,” as well as “undertake land use bylaw amendments to promote missing middle land use districts.”

Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas recently returned from a trip to Ontario where he met with federal officials and CMHC, seeking clarity on the future of the funding.

Farkas said he received reassurances the federal government wants to work with Calgary to build housing, as the city has led the country in housing starts over the last three years.

“Obviously, the federal government would like to see much more density, much more zoning applied across cities from coast to coast to coast,” Farkas said. “But the local context really matters, and also the written words of the agreement really matter.”

During the election, Farkas ran on a platform to repeal and replace citywide rezoning. Although a replacement plan hasn’t been unveiled,  Farkas told reporters it is part of the ongoing discussions.

“The worst case scenario is that council goes back to the way things were without any type of replacement plan or approach in terms of how we’re going to build the housing,” Farkas said. “The worst case scenario will never materialize here.”

As it stands, the motion to repeal citywide rezoning directs city administration to revert the city’s land-use bylaw to what it was prior to the previous city council approving citywide rezoning, but would exclude properties that had development permits approved prior to the motion or any currently under review in the permit process.

City administration said the implications to federal funding won’t be fully known until after council decides on whether to repeal citywide, but the report to councillors outlined $861 million in funds that could be impacted across multiple streams. 

Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot, who drafted the motion to repeal citywide rezoning, said administration is “risk averse” when it comes to a potential “loss in revenue.”

“The way I look at it is, it’s not money we have so it’s not money we’ve lost,” Chabot told reporters. “It’s money we could have and so let’s work with our federal counterparts to see what we can get while still delivering what Calgarians expect from us.”

Committee went behind closed doors for nearly two hours Wednesday to discuss the impacts and the recent communication from CMHC.

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