{"id":574072,"date":"2026-04-01T01:06:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T01:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/574072\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T01:06:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T01:06:18","slug":"calgary-city-council-finalizes-2026-property-tax-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/574072\/","title":{"rendered":"Calgary city council finalizes 2026 property tax rates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As oil prices rise, some members of Calgary city council are hoping the province will give the city more money as property tax rates are finalized for the upcoming year.<\/p>\n<p>Calgary city council approved the 2026 property tax rates on Tuesday, following the provincial government\u2019s budget and confirmation of its share of the levy.<\/p>\n<p>For a typical single\u2011family home assessed at about $706,000, the city estimates an annual increase of nearly $390. That includes a $49 rise from the municipal side, roughly 1.8 per cent, and a $338 jump from the provincial education levy, a 21 per cent increase.<\/p>\n<p>Council had already locked in its share of the tax hike last year, but waited for the province to finalize its portion through the budget. <\/p>\n<p>The size of the provincial increase has <a href=\"https:\/\/calgary.citynews.ca\/2026\/03\/05\/calgary-education-tax\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">drawn sharp criticism<\/a> from Mayor Jeromy Farkas, who has argued the education tax has grown by more than $212 million and compared the province\u2019s approach to federal equalization payments. Premier Danielle Smith rejected that comparison, saying the levy directly supports Calgary students and helps fund new schools.<\/p>\n<p>The mayor is now urging the province to share more revenue as oil prices climb.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re hoping for a revised tabled budget document,\u201d Farkas said, adding that rising global oil prices, driven in part by conflict in the Middle East, should translate into additional support for municipalities.<\/p>\n<p>The province pushed back on that expectation. It said any extra revenue from higher oil prices before April 1 will go toward reducing the 2025\u201326 deficit, not the projected $9.4 billion shortfall in 2026\u201327. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cA few weeks of strong oil prices is not enough to offset an entire year,\u201d reads a statement. \u201cSurpluses aren\u2019t a discretionary pool that can simply be reallocated on demand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Coun. Dan McLean said it\u2019s still worth asking. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t ask, you don\u2019t get sometimes, so we\u2019ll see how it goes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Economists note that if high oil prices persist, Alberta\u2019s fiscal picture could shift dramatically. University of Calgary professor Trevor Tombe said that at around $100 per barrel, roughly $40 above the province\u2019s budget, Alberta could erase its deficit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat right there alone would translate, if sustained for an entire year, into roughly $30 billion,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Property tax bills will be mailed out in May. Residents can estimate their 2026 taxes and see a breakdown of where their dollars go at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.calgary.ca\/property-owners\/taxes\/calculator.html?redirect=\/taxcalculator\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">calgary.ca\/taxcalculator<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As oil prices rise, some members of Calgary city council are hoping the province will give the city&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-574072","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-calgary","10":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}