Calgary’s new, rookie-laden city council cut its teeth on budget deliberations merely days after being elected, whittling down a 3.6% property tax increase, asked for by administration, to a 1.64% increase.
It was long, 12-hour meetings of debates over complicated information and a main reason the proposed increase was rejected is because some councillors said they were responding to Calgarians telling them to hold the line.
It was refreshing to see council do the bidding of the electorate for once, unlike the previous council, and on Monday this council faces a larger debate: responding to a notice of motion to repeal banket upzoning.
In April 2024, nine councillors ignored the wishes of a vast majority of Calgarians and approved the blanket upzoning bylaw.
There was confusion surrounding the decision, with some evidence of federal government interference.
In a letter from then Liberal housing minister, Sean Fraser, to former Calgary mayor Jyoti Gondek, dated September 14, 2023, Fraser wrote that a grant of $228.5 million from the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) for the city would be withheld if “exclusionary zoning city-wide" was not eliminated by Calgary council.
However, a contract between the city and the feds signed in November 2023, confirming the HAF money, included a clause that said the city was not fettered to change zoning bylaws in order to receive the money.
It may be just me, but I wonder if Gondek shared the Fraser letter, but not the contract, with her colleagues on council?
More confusion arose on November 21 this year, when word spread through city hall that the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) would suspend the city’s next HAF payment if blanket upzoning was repealed. A few days later, CMHC said it had no intention of suspending the money.
It should be noted CMHC’s main concern was the city issuing building permits for 40,000-plus ‘missing middle’ housing units over the four years of the contract, which the city has far exceeded, well ahead of schedule, so CMHC is happy.
The approval of blanket upzoning was pushed through with government interference, at the federal and civic levels, into the lives of Calgarians, despite the fact 75% of Calgarians who participated in a public hearing told council not to approve it.
The bylaw was passed under the guise of adding affordable housing in Calgary, something it has completely failed to do. Many of the homes that have been built due to the bylaw are selling for between $600,000 and $800,000.
Repealing the bylaw was a major plank in the platforms of a number of candidates seeking a seat on council, including Mayor Jeromy Farkas and Cllrs. Dan McLean (Ward 13), Rob Ward (Ward 11), Andre Chabot (Ward 10), Kim Tyers (Ward 1) and Mike Jamieson (Ward 12).
All of the above, plus Cllr. Landon Johnston (Ward 14), are sponsoring the notice of motion to repeal blanket upzoning coming to council on Monday.
And let’s be clear, this isn’t a vote for or against affordable housing; it’s a test of democracy, a test of council to do the bidding of the majority of Calgarians and of protecting their rights.
A group called Calgarians For Thoughtful Growth (CFTG), formed specifically to fight blanket upzoning, including in the courts, is in full support of repealing the bylaw.
A letter sent to Mayor Farkas from the group reminds him and other councillors that Calgarians are the bosses.
“There is a moment in every city’s life when the people speak plainly and ask only that their government hear them. Calgary has had two such moments. The first came in the spring of 2024, through the biggest public hearing this city has ever seen, when Calgarians lined up for days to say that blanket upzoning was the wrong tool, imposed in the wrong way, on the wrong scale. By the City’s own count, a clear majority of speakers opposed it,” reads the letter.
“It came again in the municipal election of 2025, when voters returned a Council majority on an explicit promise to repeal that bylaw and start again with real, community-specific planning. That is what democratic legitimacy looks like: a hearing record and an electoral mandate pointing in the same direction.”
The letter continues, “The question before you is not whether you agree with every person who opposed blanket upzoning. The question is simpler and more honourable than that: will you respect what Calgarians have asked for, in a lawful way, and keep faith with the democratic bargain that brought you here?”
“If you vote against it, or weaken it until repeal becomes a mirage, you send a different message: that two clear democratic signals can be ignored; that promises can be shelved; that the public may speak but will be disregarded.”
Blanket upzoning must be repealed. It might be messy dealing with outstanding building permits and there could be lawsuits.
But ditching democracy is much worse than a lawsuit.