Financial facts

Investing in what matters most to Calgarians

We use your feedback to help create our Business plans and budgets. These plans guide how we deliver City services. Each year, Council can update them to support what Calgarians need and to help keep Calgary one of the most livable cities in North America and the world.

View the 2026 proposed budget

Where do your property tax dollars go?

More than one-third of your property tax goes to the province, over $1 billion was sent in 2025. The remaining goes to support 90+ City service like Police, Fire and Transit. Property taxes fund half the cost of our services, the rest comes from other sources like user fees, permits and licenses.

Get your property tax breakdown

Long description for screen readers

Residential property tax breakdown 

63% funds City of Calgary service

37% goes to The Government of Alberta

2025 property tax change - Calgary 5.2% increase and Alberta 15.6% increase. Click to see how Calgary uses your tax dollars.

How does Calgary's property tax compare to other cities?

Calgary continues to be one of the most affordable cities for property tax when comparing household income, single-family homes and increases over the last five years. 

Long description

Three graphs with average property tax information for 2025.

Graph 1: 

Percentage of household income spent on municipal tax in 2025

  • Vancouver 7.7%
  • Toronto 5.0%
  • Ottawa 4.3%
  • Edmonton 4.0% 
  • Average 3.4%
  • Calgary 2.8%
  • Winnipeg 2.7%
  • Okotoks 2.6%
  • Cochrane 2.3%
  • Airdrie 2.3%
  • Chestermere 1.8%
  • Rocky View 1.6%

Graph 2: 

Average municipal property taxes paid by median households in 2025

  • Vancouver $4910
  • Ottawa $4427
  • Toronto $4160
  • Edmonton $3590
  • Average $3163
  • Okotoks $2987
  • Calgary $2698
  • Cochrane $2623
  • Airdrie $2486
  • Rocky View $2422
  • Chestermere $2364
  • Winnipeg $2128

Graph 3:

  • Vancouver 6.4%
  • Toronto. 4.9%
  • Edmonton 4.3%
  • Ottawa 2.9%
  • Winnipeg 3.5%
  • Calgary 2.7%

Popular tax questions

Learn about our Finances

Learn how we manage City finances to help keep Calgary affordable despite rapid inflation and population growth.

Managing City finances

Learn more about why we have reserves, how we use them, and how they connect to our surplus and overall finances.

City reserves

Managing our finances carefully can result in savings, or a favourable operating variance. Council can use these funds to better support Calgarians.

Annual operating variance

Calgary's strong financial management is recognized as one of the best in Canada.

The City of Calgary Newsroom

Learn why Council increased the tax responsibility of residential properties 1% from 2024 to 2026 to support local businesses.

Municipal tax share

We manage our workforce wisely. We have one of the lowest full-time equivalents (FTEs) per thousand people among major Canadian cities.

Managing our workforce

View our financial, long-range plans and Business plans and budgets reports.

Financial reports

Priority capital projects do not increase property tax or impact how we deliver City services.

Major infrastructure projects

Learn more about gas and electricity charges, Local Access Fees, and our efforts to investigate changes for Calgarians.

Understanding franchise fees

Our finances are impacted by an estimated downloading of $436.9 million annually from other orders of government. Read the Municipal Fiscal Gap Report.

Financial Task Force
undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null