LiveWire Calgary

A special meeting has been called by Calgary’s mayor in light of the recent disclosure of closed-door budget information to local media. Mayor Jeromy Farkas posted the meeting notice to Facebook with it providing notice of a Special Meeting of Council to begin at 9:45 a.m. on Sept. 8. There is already an Executive Committee meeting scheduled for 9:30 a.m. that day, and presumably they will suspend that meeting to the call of the chair, pending the conclusion of the special meeting.

Calgary mayor Jeromy Farkas said Thursday that recently published numbers on a potential four-year cumulative property tax revenue increase of 42.5 per cent just represent a wish list, not reality. Mayor Farkas held a media conference on Sept. 3 to address the budget numbers, first reported by LWC and Global Calgary.

Hundreds of civil rights groups wrote the federal government to criticize status checks on international students during a Calgary protest. Over 250 organizations signed a letter sent on Sept. 2, calling for an investigation into allegations that the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) issued removal orders to several people protesting changes to work permit eligibility.

Two familiar Calgary city council combatants locked horns once again, with one councillor admitting he leaked confidential city documents on the budget to local media. On Wednesday, both LWC and Global Calgary broke a story on a planned revised budget plan that called for a preliminary plan to increase property tax revenue over the next four years by a cumulative 42.5 per cent. After that story, Ward 14 Coun.

Revenue guidance for Calgary’s next four-year budget has been requested by city council, with preliminary numbers asking for a cumulative 42.5 per cent property tax revenue growth between 2027 and 2030. LiveWire Calgary has learned that during a closed-door meeting earlier this summer, councillors voted 8-7 in favour of administration providing an updated review of the proposed budget for Sept.

Downtown Green Line alignment options have been made public, and there are many opinions on how Calgary city council should proceed – including staying the course on an underground train. An update on the Downtown Green Line alignment comes to the Sept. 8 Executive Committee meeting, and in it are three options — two are elevated and one that remains on the surface along 10 Avenue SW.

Artificial intelligence scoured transportation network data to rank Calgary’s top 50 highest-risk pedestrian locations without traffic signals, and councillors are hoping they can put budget cash behind the fixes. Councillors at the Sept. 1 Community Development Committee got details on the AI platform that assessed more than 17,000 intersections in Calgary and assigned them a position using a scale from 0 to 1000, with higher scores indicating greater risk.

Canada’s federal government has awarded a chunk of change to ensure Calgary’s water system is reliable today and prepared for tomorrow. Corey Hogan, parliamentary secretary for the federal minister of energy and natural resources, joined Mayor Jeromy Farkas on the morning of Sept. 1 to announce a federal investment of up to $29 million in the initial phase of the North Calgary Water Servicing project, which is slated for completion by early 2027.

Calgary Pride raised its flag to start the annual week’s festivities, which will continue despite financial and political disruptions. The non-profit organization marked the beginning of Pride Week, happening from Aug. 31 to Sept. 6, on Monday morning with its annual flag-raising ceremony at The Confluence Historic Site and Parkland. Local Indigenous leaders and elders held a private prayer ceremony before 11 a.m., and soon after, welcomed the flag-raising with two drum songs.

The Government of Alberta issued a request for proposals (RFP) for a $200,000 contract in February to have a consultant analyze public decisions regarding the management of Calgary’s water assets. This contract was issued Feb. 19, 2026, with a closing date of March 3, 2026, which is nearly three months after the province initially announced they would be reviewing the Bearspaw South feeder main rupture and Calgary’s water system.