A Calgary Councillor Claims the City's Housing Strategy is Reshaping Our Neighbourhoods For the Wrong Reasons

[CALGARY, AB] — Six days before a final vote that could cost the city $861 million, Ward 13 Councillor Dan McLean is calling blanket rezoning what he believes it always was: a tax grab dressed up as a housing fix.

The Affordability Argument Just Got a Competing Narrative

In a post on X this morning, McLean shared a clip of a pro-rezoning advocate and offered his read: the city isn't reshaping your neighbourhood to help renters — it's doing it to expand the property tax base. "I don't think the City should be able to fundamentally change entire established communities just to boost their bottom line," McLean wrote.

It's a sharp frame. And it's not without some grounding in reality — even if it isn't the whole picture.

Here's what's actually true: blanket rezoning was born from Home is Here, Calgary's Housing Strategy 2024–2030, approved by Council in September 2023. The stated mission was affordability — more townhouses, more multi-unit builds, more supply in mature neighbourhoods with existing infrastructure. Former Mayor Gondek's Council voted 9-6 to pass it on May 14, 2024. It came into force that August.

Also true: denser neighbourhoods do generate more property tax revenue over time. That's not a conspiracy — it's arithmetic. More units on a lot means a broader tax base. Whether that's a feature or a bug depends entirely on who you ask.

The $861 Million Question Nobody Wants to Answer Out Loud

Mayor Jeromy Farkas and a 13-2 Council majority voted in December 2025 to begin rolling back blanket rezoning — a central promise of the fall election. The repeal process is nearly complete. The public hearing lands on March 23.

But a city report dropped on February 11 threw a wrench into the victory lap: repealing the policy could trigger non-compliance with Calgary's Housing Accelerator Fund agreement with CMHC, potentially torching $861 million in federal funding. That number includes $251 million from the Housing Accelerator Fund, another $251 million tied to the Canada Public Transit Fund, and a chunk of Calgary's $359 million share of the Build Canada Homes program.

So far, the repeal coalition hasn't offered a clear answer on how to absorb that hit — or whether they believe Ottawa would actually pull the trigger.

Meanwhile, Your Property Tax Bill Tells a Different Story

If McLean's concern is the tax burden on homeowners, the numbers on that front are already grim — and rezoning is almost beside the point. Council approved a 1.64% municipal property tax increase for 2026. For a typical single-family home, that's roughly $49 more per year, or $4.50 a month. Manageable, if that were the whole story.

It isn't. The provincial portion of your 2026 property tax bill is climbing by $339 per year — a 21.05% jump. The City of Calgary will collect and remit over $1.2 billion in property tax to the Province of Alberta this year. That's the number your anger should be pointed at.

On the affordability side, Calgary's housing price-to-income ratio edged down to 5.2 in Q1 2025 from 5.4 the year before — a modest improvement, driven more by wage growth than by any dramatic shift in home prices. Whether blanket rezoning accelerated that trend or had no effect yet is a legitimate debate.

What isn't debatable: on March 23, Council will make a decision that either preserves a rezoning policy the previous administration staked its legacy on — or blows up nearly a billion dollars in federal commitments to undo it.

Councillor McLean's tweet lands six days before that vote. The timing is not accidental.