Calgary’s new mayor seeks to lower taxes, repeal rezoning

Calgary's new council has less than a month before making changes to the city's multibillion-dollar budget.

Just hours after officially being sworn in as Calgary’s new mayor, Jeromy Farkas stood before the city’s business community to deliver his first state of the city address.

“City hall needs to listen better. Our mayor and council need to listen to Calgarians and better include the input, the ideas, the policy, the research, the leadership that we’re hearing,” said Farkas at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce event.

Farkas is returning to city hall after four years previously as a councillor—this time, he’s in the mayor’s chair.

He’s joined by 10 new faces on a city council of 14.

They will have little time to catch their breath.

Deliberations on budget adjustments are set to start on Nov. 10, and what’s proposed for 2026 is a 5.4 per cent tax increase for residential property owners.

“There’s a broad consensus that the tax increase that is being proposed is far too high,” Farkas said Thursday.

“We’re going to be working really hard to lower the tax increase, but also lean in on some of the areas that Calgarians told us were important, particularly around public safety, essential infrastructure maintenance.”

Public safety improvements are also priorities for the groups representing businesses in the core.

“We really need to make sure that there are no deterrents for people to be part of the business community, to take part in entertainment activities, to be able to take public transit,” said Deborah Yedlin with the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.

In the proposed budget for next year, the city is already planning on hiring additional police officers.

Reopening a 24-7 downtown police station is also being floated as a possibility.

“Seeing the city coming forward with their part, which is the increased safety requirements based on what we’re seeing on transit today and in the downtown, is paramount to the success for Calgary going forward,” said Mark Garner, executive director of the Calgary Downtown Association.

Farkas did not provide details on areas where council could possibly find efficiencies in the budget to bring the proposed tax increase down.

The mayor also said the issue of repealing blanket rezoning will be first handled in council chambers toward the end of this year.

“We’re going to be working on the process to repeal blanket rezoning following the budget,” he said.

“We’re going to be working the first 100 days to address those key priorities, firstly, around affordability, ensuring that the taxes are reasonable.”

If council does choose to change the city’s land use bylaw, another public hearing will need to be held.