Operating Variance & Timeline

Operating variance & timeline

When we spend less than we budget for or have higher revenue, we have a favourable operating variance. We keep a close eye on this and report it to Council regularly. Council can use these funds to support Calgarians, businesses and the community.

Managing our finances

We manage money carefully and responsibly. We follow the rules in the Municipal Government Act, City Charter and Council Policy guidelines. We only budget what's needed to run City services.

2025 Q3 operating variance

The annual operating variance is estimated to be $210 million this year.
For the third quarter of 2025, the favourable operating variance is $210 million.

Q3 2025 favourable operating variance

Detailed description

2025 third quarter favourable operating variance ($ Million)

  • Investment income - $151M
  • Other corporate revenues (net) - $19M
  • Calgary Police Service - $10M
  • Operational services - $9M
  • Community services - $8M
  • Planning and Development Services - $8M
  • Other departments - $6M

Note: numbers may not add up precisely to the totals due to rounding.

Read the full Quarterly progress and financial update

The variance came from:

  • Higher revenues, including:
    • Increased investment income from interest earnings and one-time gains from rebalancing The City’s bond and equity portfolio
    • Higher than anticipated revenue from fines and penalties
    • Timing of grant received
  • Higher than anticipated revenue from City-operated services and programs
  • Lower than expected costs due to timing and operational efficiencies:
    • Less corporate contingency requirements for unforeseen events
    • Lower than anticipated  contracted services and operational costs
  • Temporary salary and wage savings across departments due to vacant positions

See the details in the Financial and Economic Update Third Quarter 2025.

Using the variance

The projected year-end variance for 2025 will be committed towards funding high priority operating and capital requests. 

2025

2024

$276.3 million. Here’s where Council allocated these funds:

  • $57 million to fund high-priority 2025 investments including:
    • Housing
    • Community Safety and Social Wellbeing
    • Transit and Mobility    
  • $134 million to the Green Line Capital Fund
  • $85.3 million was uncommitted and transferred to the Fiscal Stability Reserve.

2023

$236.4 million. Here’s where Council allocated these funds:

  • $100 million to fund high-priority 2024 investments including:
    - Affordable housing
    - Public safety
    - Transit
  • $137 million was uncommitted and transferred to the Fiscal Stability Reserve.

2022

$258.7 million. Here’s where Council allocated these funds:

  • In November, $65 million to:
    - maintain public transit fees at 2022 levels
    - support Calgary’s Mental Health and Addiction Strategy
    - increase funding for the Calgary Fire Department.
  • In April:
    - $32 million as a one-time budget increase for Calgary Transit to offset pandemic impacts.
  • $161.7 million was uncommitted and transferred to the Fiscal Stability Reserve.

Timeline

Each year, we follow a process to notify Council and confirm our operating variance.

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March, June and September

Start Date | End Date

Our quarterly progress reports contain an estimate of the operating variance for the current year.

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November

Start Date | End Date

We share an updated estimate of the annual operating variance with Council during budget discussions. They use this information to decide if these funds should be used for one-time initiatives in next year’s budget.

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Following April (Click to see what the funds are used to cover)

Start Date | End Date

We release the Annual Financial Report which contains the confirmed operating variance. Any unused funds are transferred to our Fiscal Stability Reserve.

View Annual Financial Report

 We use the funds to cover:

  • emergency operational situations 
  • unplanned reductions in revenue 
  • urgent capital expenditures 
  • one-time operating budget expenditures 

Investing for Calgarians

Council uses one-time funds from the operating variance to further support Calgarians, businesses and the community.

See our 2025 service investments
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