Calgary Roads: Mayor's optimism overlooks city's deteriorating streets

[CALGARY, AB] — Mayor Jeromy Farkas took to X this week to tout Calgarian optimism, but the city's own data tells a more complicated story: nearly four in ten residents say traffic and roads are their single biggest concern, and nearly a third of those roads are already failing.

The Survey Says: Fix the Roads, Then Talk About Feelings

The 2026 Spring Survey of Calgarians, conducted between February 17 and March 16, found that 39% of residents named traffic and roads as their top priority for local leaders. Another 21% flagged crime, safety, and policing. As Mayor Farkas noted on X, Calgarians do report general optimism about city life — but optimism and frustration are not mutually exclusive. You can love a city and still blow a tire on Glenmore.

The Gap Between What Council Approved and What the City Actually Needs

A March 2026 report to City Council's Infrastructure and Planning Committee put the ten-year infrastructure price tag at $49 billion, with $8.7 billion earmarked specifically for roads and pathways. The approved 2026 capital budget allocates $201 million for infrastructure — roads, intersection improvements, and streetlights combined. That is not a rounding error; that is a structural mismatch.

Right now, 32% of Calgary's roadways are rated fair to poor condition. Eleven percent of the city's overall assets sit in poor or very poor condition. Council approved the 2026 budget in December 2025, trimming the proposed property tax increase from 3.6% down to 1.64% by redirecting $50 million in investment income. The math is cleaner on paper than it is on Stoney Trail.

Public Safety Got a Bigger Slice — With a Provincial Asterisk

The Calgary Police Service enters 2026 with a $613 million operating budget, a net increase of $59 million over the prior year. Embedded in that figure is $94 million for public safety initiatives: recruiting officers, replacing aging vehicles, and facility upgrades. That sounds robust until you factor in Alberta's ban on photo radar in most locations, which cut a direct revenue line the CPS had previously relied upon. The province handed the city a mandate without replacing the money.

The 2027-2030 Budget Is Where This Gets Real

In March 2026, Council approved six strategic priorities to guide the next four-year budget cycle. Three of them — "reliable and sustainable infrastructure," "a safe city," and "a functional transportation network" — map almost perfectly onto what residents flagged in the Spring Survey. That alignment is either reassuring or a sign that Council has been hearing the same complaints for years and is still working on the response.

The honest question sitting underneath Mayor Farkas's optimistic post is this: if Calgarians have ranked roads and safety as top priorities consistently enough to anchor a multi-year budget framework, what does it mean that 32% of those roads are still deteriorating while the city funds a fraction of what its own engineers say is needed? Optimism is a fine civic posture. It just does not fill a pothole.