Calgary Gift Cards: Taxpayer money vanishes without a trace
City audit reveals missing records for gift cards.
[CALGARY, AB] — A City Auditor's Office review of $98,000 in municipal gift card spending has found that more than a third of transactions had no record of who actually received the money, and that city employees were routinely handed gift cards worth four times the permitted limit.
The Numbers That Should Make You Pause
The audit examined eight months of spending — January 26 to August 25, 2025 — and the findings are blunt. Thirty-eight percent of gift card transactions identified no recipient whatsoever. Of the $30,352 spent specifically on employee recognition gift cards, 55% exceeded the City's own suggested $25 ceiling. The median card value was $100.
That is not a rounding error. That is a pattern.
No Framework, No Paper Trail
The root problem, according to the audit, is structural. The City of Calgary has no comprehensive corporate framework governing how gift cards are procured, distributed, or tracked. Existing policy guidance on spending limits is vague, and record-keeping requirements for recipients are essentially toothless.
The audit report, which flagged the situation as a "significant risk," was presented to the City's Audit Committee on April 25, 2026. The committee is chaired by Councillor J. Wyness, with Councillor M. Jamieson serving as Vice-Chair.
Who Is Saying What
Councillor Jamieson flagged his own involvement publicly on X, noting he was quoted in the Calgary Herald regarding the audit's findings. His post confirmed the core numbers: 38% of transactions with no recipient on record, and recognition cards routinely blowing past the $25 guideline. The Calgary Herald covered the story as the primary print outlet.
City Hall, for its part, has vowed to tighten oversight. The audit recommends administration build a proper corporate framework and establish clearer rules on both spending limits and documentation.
The Fair Counterpoint
It is worth noting that $98,000 across eight months is not a staggering sum for a municipal administration the size of Calgary's. Employee recognition programs exist for legitimate reasons — morale, retention, and acknowledging workers in departments that don't often see public praise. The audit does not allege fraud or personal enrichment.
But that is precisely what makes the record-keeping gap so frustrating. If the spending is defensible, the paper trail should be easy to produce. The fact that it isn't — that nearly four in ten transactions cannot be tied to a named recipient — is the actual problem.
What Comes Next
The Audit Committee now holds the recommendations. Administration is expected to develop a formal gift card policy with enforceable limits and mandatory recipient documentation.
Calgary taxpayers have a reasonable right to know who got a $100 gift card on the public dime. Right now, for 38% of those transactions, that answer is simply: nobody wrote it down.