![\"Calgary](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/calgary_herald_articles_312\/262369a7063b65b17466e2c45b733636.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nCalgary property tax hikes. These are preliminary numbers but they are on the table.<\/p>\n
20.2 per cent 2027.<\/p>\n
8.5 per cent 2028.<\/p>\n
9.0 per cent 2029.<\/p>\n
8.9 per cent 2030.<\/p>\n
What the\u2026?<\/p>\n
The numbers are mind-blowing. Surreal. Beyond belief.<\/p>\n
Out of this world even for what you’d expect from out-of-this-world, money-hungry bigshots calling the shots at Calgary city hall.<\/p>\n
The ugly arithmetic hits the street Wednesday supper time courtesy of Global Calgary. The incredible mathematics is from city hall but it was not released by city hall.<\/p>\n
Presumably the high-and-mighties downtown were waiting to give Calgary taxpayers the punch in the gut at a later date.<\/p>\n
Mayor Farkas says the numbers are not the final word.<\/p>\n
The mayor says just because the city hall boss paper shufflers offer up some impossible-to-swallow numbers it does not mean city council is going to accept those numbers.<\/p>\n
Farkas says city hall politicians are going to ask city hall higher-ups very tough questions. The mayor says city council will hold the paper shufflers accountable for every dollar spent.<\/p>\n
We’ve seen that movie and it almost never has a happy ending. Lights! Camera! Action!<\/p>\n
Related<\/p>\n
You have to admit city hall brass have some nerve to even throw these obscene numbers out there, telling Calgarians council has to lower the tax hike working down from the Mount Everest of tax hikes.<\/p>\n
20.2 per cent in 2027.<\/p>\n
These numbers make former mayor Naheed Nenshi and his crew look like tightwads, penny-pinchers.<\/p>\n
Back almost two decades ago, when Calgarians faced a proposed 25 per cent tax increase over three years, taxpayers hit the roof, came down to city hall to a budget open house and confronted the mayor and those councillors with enough backbone to listen to them face to face.<\/p>\n
And if Farkas the councillor and Farkas the mayor were the same person, he would come out right now and say any tax hikes on Calgary property taxpayers will be a solar system away from what is out there.<\/p>\n
We learn city council narrowly voted for a 15 per cent property tax hike next year, followed by a 12.5 per cent increase in 2028, a nine per cent increase in 2029 and a six per cent increase in 2030.<\/p>\n
Such numbers should immediately trigger the gag reflex. We are talking lower numbers than that, Mr. Mayor.<\/p>\n
Many of us still have fond memories of your days as a fiscal hawk, fighting the good fight against city hall big spenders.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas speaks at a press conference on Stephen Avenue in downtown Calgary on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026.<\/p>\n
You can bet city hall’s top-level bosses will claim city hall is stretched to the very limit. Everything is essential. They have cut to the bone.<\/p>\n
This is the game year after year after year and most Calgarians buy the shtick or accept it with the trademark Calgary apathy.<\/p>\n
Or it’s the old move where you float a ginormous tax hike and then when the tax increase is just plain awful and disgusting Calgarians will suck it up.<\/p>\n
Thank you city council, you saved us from the worst.<\/p>\n
We expected a punch in the gut and we only got a slap in the face and a kick in the butt. Thank you.<\/p>\n
Maybe city hall bigshots make that bet since fewer than four in 10 voters in Calgary bothered to mark their X in the last city election, an election that was supposed to be about change.<\/p>\n
Landon Johnston is a councillor who fights against high taxes and led the petition drive to dump former mayor Jyoti Gondek.<\/p>\n
Johnston says city hall has to cut spending that’s not essential. He believes Calgarians need to get the biggest bang for the buck.<\/p>\n
The man feels it is important Calgarians get a look at the numbers now.<\/p>\n
“This council is supposed to be different. Now is the opportunity to show we’re different.”<\/p>\n
Dan McLean is a councillor who fights against high taxes and gets mocked by some for doing so.<\/p>\n
“Calgary taxpayers are not going to be happy and that’s an understatement. I think they are going to be outraged. This is a shock. I was shocked.”<\/p>\n
McLean says the city has to pay for its essential services and other areas of city hall are going to have to take a haircut.<\/p>\n
“If you’re going to spend here, you have got to cut there. We have to show where there is fat on the bone and we know it’s there.”<\/p>\n
And where will Farkas land? His political honeymoon with Calgarians is over.<\/p>\n