They jumped the gun, firing harmless blanks, but causing a great deal of consternation that ricocheted off the walls of Calgary city council chambers this week, but certainly with no malice aforethought.
‘They’ are members of city administration, who on the morning of November 21 had a sit down with folks from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CHMC), which administers the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) with which the city is a partner.
Discussions with the CMHC included the progress the city has made in increasing its housing supply, with money received from the HAF. Also discussed was the pending repeal of the infamous blanket upzoning bylaw, with the CMHC folks apparently saying they would have to check to see if that in any way would affect its HAF contract.
This was relayed to city council on Thursday morning by Chief Operation Officer, Stuart Dalgleish who made a lengthy, sometimes rambling, presentation, which we will paraphrase here.
Dalgliesh was not at the meeting on November 21, being out of town on business, but when he returned, he learned about the meeting with the CMHC personnel and the comment about whether repealing blanket upzoning would affect the HAF contract terms.
Dalgliesh and his team sent emails last Friday night to Mayor Farkas and all city councillors to let them know about the meeting and that they were reviewing potential implications, although the email contained no contingency recommendations. Dalgleish said the email was essentially a ‘heads up’ because council would start budget deliberations on Monday. November 24.
On Monday morning another email was sent to councillors that there was a risk to the city in terms of the housing accelerator funding, however, in council’s meeting on Thursday, Dalgliesh said he and his team were certain the city is in full compliance with the HAF contract, and in fact they believed the city is exceeding its growth targets.
Thus, word, a rumour actually, spread that CMHC said it would pause the next scheduled HAF payment of $129.5 million, if the issue of repealing banket upzoning wasn’t settled by March 2026.
Councillors went into shock, trying to figure out how they would find an extra $129.5 million, during budget week so less. And would they have to reconsider repealing blanket upzoning?
On Wednesday evening, CMHC put the issue to rest in a statement, saying “Calgary’s Housing Accelerator funding has not been paused. We will reiterate, we are aware of Calgary’s proposal and are reviewing the details – no official decisions have been made on funding decisions. We will also reiterate, we expect municipalities to fulfill their agreements. If a partner’s agreed on commitments aren’t met or are reversed, this puts their HAF funding at risk.”
Losing $129.5 million is anything but funny, but in hindsight, there is humour in this story. Also, to think CMHC cares about where the new homes are located is as laughable as assuming it cares about what colour the homes are.
CMHC cares only about the number of homes that get built; a number that is identified in its contract with the city; a number the city has more than exceeded.
In a release last summer the city said “The City of Calgary has exceeded its housing targets under the federal Housing Accelerator Fund, starting construction on 44,276 units by mid-2025, surpassing the revised goal of 42,667 units more than a year ahead of schedule. This success resulted in an additional $22.8 million in funding from the federal government.”
The city said the bonus money would go toward new initiatives such as the backyard suites and the accessory dwellings program and the downtown complete community housing program.
So councillors, the door is wide open to repeal blanket upzoning.