Every four years, The City creates service plans and budgets to deliver on what’s important to Calgarians. These documents provide the roadmap for how we deliver services to citizens and the financial plan to support our actions. As we are in the last year of the 2019-2022 Service Plans and Budgets, work is underway to create the 2023-2026 Service Plans and Budgets.

For more information about the project, please click on the link below.

Service Plans and Budgets Project Page

Calgary is a resilient city. Time and again, we come together, support each other, learn from our experience and use our shared journey to set new goals. All City Council’s decisions are guided by economic, social and climate resilience. In the 2023-2026 Service Plans and Budgets, Administration will deliver on Resilient Calgary: Council’sStrategic Direction 2023-2026.

Engagement for Phase 2 runs from Sept. 1-30, 2022 and is based on the feedback we received from Phase 1.

YOUR VOICE MATTERS

Your input is an important part of the service planning and budgeting process. By getting your feedback on key questions, we can better understand your perspective around our service levels and the value you receive in our service for your tax dollars and user fees paid.

We would like to know where participants in this engagement live. The first question in each tab/theme below will ask what ward you currently live in (required). Please click here to find out what ward you live in if you are not sure.

Click on each tab below to learn about each theme from Phase 1 engagement and provide your input. Remember to click submit after providing all your input in each tab. You can answer the questions in all tabs or only where you have feedback. Note the themes below are in random order and not in any priority sequence.

The purpose of The City of Calgary is to make life better every day. To fully realize our purpose, we are committed to addressing racism and other forms of discrimination with our programs, policies, and services and eliminating barriers that impact the lives of Indigenous, racialized and other marginalized people. It is expected that participants will behave respectfully and treat everyone with dignity and respect to allow for safe spaces free from bias and prejudice.

Theme 1: Equity and inclusion are important to consider when making decisions about services and service delivery that impact all Calgarians.

We want to ensure that we have an equitable city. As a City, this means that we consider how decisions, policies, programs and services are experienced differently by Calgarians. Especially those who have historically experienced racism, exclusion, discrimination and oppression, and make meaningful changes to reduce barriers and increase equity, racial justice and inclusion.

This includes:

• Our Fair Entry program, which lets you apply for multiple programs and services with one application. Your eligibility is based on your income. This program facilitates access to programs and services for all Calgarians.
• Ensuring that recreation centres, parks and green spaces, and other City services are in areas that need them.
• Our Community Social Work program, where community social workers support residents to identify social issues and work together towards neighbourhood-based solutions. They prioritize working with community members who have experienced social and/or economic marginalization and in neighbourhoods which are selected using equity considerations.
• Benefit driven procurement, which uses City buying power for economic and social benefits.
• Our period equity pilot project, where free pads and tampons are available in select City and library facilities.
• And more.

In the 2023-2026 Service Plans and Budgets, we are aiming to further integrate equity, racial justice and inclusion into the process, service plans, decisions and investments.

Equity is defined as making sure people get access to the same opportunities and everyone gets the supports they need.

Theme 2: Calgarians have high expectations about fiscal responsibility and receiving value for services provided through a balance of property taxes and user fees.

We can't always do all of the things that Calgarians want because our resources are limited and we need to keep taxes affordable. So we look at where improvements can be made while finding efficiencies to save money and we make tough decisions, prioritizing the most important things for the next four years.

We aim to share useful information with you so that you can see where your property tax dollars and user fees go. Here are some resources:

• You can get a breakdown of how your property tax dollars are invested to make Calgary a great place to live at calgary.ca/TaxBreakdown.
• Learn about the planning process, how tax dollars get invested wisely, and the steps we're taking to modernize and reduce the cost of local government at calgary.ca/FinancialFacts.
• Our accountability reports provide regular information on how we are progressing in delivering the plans Council approved. They provide a tool that assists Council in managing the effective delivery of our four-year service plans and budgets commitment.

Theme 3: Citizens expect The City to seek out efficiencies and cost reductions without lowering overall service levels, as service levels are connected with quality of life for Calgarians.

City property tax-supported spending increases were below inflation and population growth for several of the past years. With a sustained focus on cost reduction, The City has been able to keep property taxes low.

We continue to manage complex challenges such as:

• COVID-19 mitigation and recovery;
• Rising inflation;
• Economic revitalization;
• Considerations for social concerns such as equity.

In addition, Calgary's population is forecast to grow by 88,000 residents between 2022-2026 – more than the population of Airdrie. With this population growth, combined with budgetary challenges from rising inflation and supporting recovery, means that a decrease or a 0 per cent change in our total property tax revenue is not sustainable as we move into the next service plans and budgets cycle.

How we fund City services

City finances can be complex. We're building our budget for 2023-2026 using many different funding sources, like:

• Franchise fees
• User fees
• Government grants
• investment income

All of these sources plus more form the budget envelope, the total funding available for the next four years. We look at forecasted inflation plus population growth, projected operating revenue and spending, and show Council estimated assessment values.

The City's multi-year business plan and budget process enables a future-oriented and sustainable approach to provide City services through Council's approval of four-year integrated plans and budgets. The approach also provides flexibility through an annual Adjustment process that allows the organization to adjust its plans and budgets in response to changes in the external environment.

Costs are rising for everyone, including The City. This year annual inflation is expected to average 5.6 per cent. We’re working hard at maintaining our services, while limiting annual total property tax budget increases to an average 3.65 per cent over the next four years. We expect that this will continue to keep our budget growth below the combined effects of population growth and inflation, which drive The City’s costs higher.

Theme 4: Calgarians understand that sustainable growth and change will support increased service efficiency.

The City is mindful of balancing sustainable growth and change for all in communities with the support for existing and future residents and businesses. We are working to identify the elements of communities that are important and reflect those in decision making.

Theme 5: Collectively as a city, social wellbeing is important and citizens expect services to reflect safety, access to services and connections to create a sense of belonging for all Calgarians.

We want to create hope and strengthen support for people, families and communities in Calgary living with mental health and addictions issues. This means wholistic wellness at home, at school, at work and in the community. It also means creating a community of connections and anti-racism infused mental health and addiction services that allow Calgarians, including Indigenous, Black and diverse Racialized peoples to get the help they need when, where and how they need it.

This includes:

• Funding allocated to preventative and supportive mental health programming through the Mental Health and Addiction Funding Framework
• Funding allocated to improve support for Calgarians in crisis through the Community Safety Investment Framework
• Funding allocated to preventative community programs through Family and Community Support Services
• Convening partners to mobilize actions outlined in Calgary’s Mental Health and Addiction Strategy and Action Plan
• Cultivating natural supports, inclusion and belonging for community members through the Community Social Work Program and Community Hubs Initiative
• Offering accessible social programs to children and youth that support positive mental health
• Providing accessible public parks and open spaces as an opportunity to support community building and strengthen informal supports

A Phase 2 What We Heard report will be completed by 2022 November 8 (UPDATED).

Administration will take into consideration the findings of Phase 1 and Phase 2 public engagement and other citizen input to build their proposed service plans and budgets for 2023-2026 to deliver on the services you value.

Council will decide on service plans and budgets for 2023-2026 in November 2022.

The City is working on plans to deliver on the services you value in our community. Providing your input helps us better understand your thoughts around what you value most in our services.

Below you will find services the City provides organized by Quality of Life Results, which are aspirational statements that describe the long-term well-being of children, adults, families and communities in Calgary. For each service there is a list of values to rank by dragging each value over to the right in the order of what is most important to you. Then after ranking the values, tell us why you picked the top value.

Feedback for this phase ran from February 2 - March 7, 2022 and is now closed. Thank you to all who participated.

To view the What we heard report for 2023- 2026 Service Plans and Budgets (phase 1), please click on the link below.

2023-2026 Service Plans and Budgets WWHR (phase 1)

To view the Phase 1 engagement verbatim please click here.

Calgarians (or visitors to Calgary) pay a fee to use some City services, like transit fares, recreation passes and facility rentals.

What you might not know is that City Administration recommends prices for each user fee to Council as part of the Service Plans and Budgets process, and there is a policy to guide how this is done.  

We’re reviewing that policy now and we want to know your thoughts on these City fees and what factors should be considered when determining how and when they are applied.

Risk is about dealing with uncertainty, which we all do daily by making decisions. When The City takes a risk by trying a new initiative, there can be positive or negative financial impacts, it can slow down or speed up getting a service to you, or impact the accessibility of our services.

Fictional example: A City of Calgary team wants to try a new type of technology to improve their systems. If this initiative doesn’t go as planned, the cost of trying it may result in service impacts and/or increased costs. If the initiative succeeds, it could result in savings and/or a better quality of service.

We want to know about your comfort level with The City taking risks like this.

Over the past few years, we’ve heard from Calgarians on what they value about services to develop Service Plans and Budgets.

To learn about past engagement that has informed how we spend your tax and user fee money, please visit the Service Plans and Budgets engagement archive. Service Plans & Budgets 2019-2022