Calgary Mayor: Reopens City Hall Tours for Public Engagement

CALGARY, AB — Mayor Jeromy Farkas is reopening City Hall's doors to the public, hosting tours of the Mayor's Office floor and working to bring back regular open houses after what appears to be a quiet period under the previous administration.

Farkas, who took office on October 29, 2025, posted photos today of a recent tour group—many of them young Calgarians he described as "future leaders"—gathered inside the fifth-floor executive suite. The move signals a shift in tone from the Jyoti Gondek era, when public access events at City Hall appear to have slowed or stopped altogether.

The Shift in Access

The phrase "re-establishing" is doing heavy lifting here. While the City has not released formal data on tour frequency during Gondek's final year in office, the implication is clear: something stopped, and Farkas is starting it again. As a City Councillor from 2017 to 2021, Farkas was known for holding regular public meet-and-greets—a habit he's now importing into the mayor's chair.

No formal schedule has been announced yet, but the Mayor's Office confirmed the initiative is moving forward under the City's existing operating budget. Translation: no new line item, just a different way of spending already-allocated public engagement dollars.

The Politics of the Door

This isn't just about transparency—it's about optics. Farkas defeated Gondek and challenger Sonya Sharp in the October 20, 2025 election by positioning himself as the accessible outsider. Hosting school groups and community tours is retail politics 101, but it also sends a message: this building belongs to you, not just the people who work here.

There's no organized pushback to the plan, though questions remain about capacity and logistics. How many tours can City Hall realistically handle? Who books them? And what happens when a contentious council meeting collides with a scheduled open house?

What's Next

Farkas says the formal tour program is still in the works. For now, the Mayor's Office is handling requests on an ad hoc basis. Details on booking and frequency are expected in the coming weeks.