Calgarians are becoming more optimistic about the direction of the city, but increasingly questioning how much benefit they are getting from their tax dollars, according to a new city survey.
City Calgary conducts two annual surveys, in the fall and in the spring, with the final fall survey set to be presented to the new City Council on Monday as part of its 2026 budget proposal.
According to the results, 71 per cent of respondents rated their quality of life in Calgary as good or very good, down slightly from the spring survey but up five per cent from last fall's survey; although this study was conducted after a summer of water restrictions due to the rupture of a critical city supply main.
Nearly seven in 10 respondents believe Calgary is on the right track to be a top city in 10 years, with 68 per cent saying the city is a great place to make money. Seventy-three percent agreed that Calgary is also a great place to “make a living.”
“I would say overall it's pretty good,” said John Buda when asked about the quality of life in Calgary. “It’s a pretty safe city compared to Toronto and other parts of Canada.”
However, only 42 per cent of those surveyed believe Calgary is moving in the right direction to ensure a high quality of life for future generations, and 56 per cent believe their quality of life has declined over the past three years.
“It's a little more difficult just because things aren't as accessible now, it used to be easier,” Calgarian Liam Leeson told Global News in response to the results. “But I still believe that living in Calgary is very safe, fun and enjoyable, no matter where you go.”
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Ahead of the budget debate in a few weeks, 39 per cent of respondents say infrastructure, traffic and roads top the list of issues Calgarians consider most important, followed by crime, safety and policing, which rose to second place since the spring poll.
The top five priorities listed by Calgarians in the city's latest community survey, and how they have changed since the spring survey.
Global news
Ward 3 Count. Andrew Yule said the information is important for the new council as it prepares to discuss the budget and is consistent with what he heard during the campaign.
“One of the things I saw with door knocking was the need for infrastructure,” he said. “North-central Calgary is struggling with this growth in Ward 3 without the appropriate infrastructure to support it.”
Overall, two-thirds, or 69 percent, of respondents were satisfied with the level and quality of services and programs offered by the city, which had been trending upward in the previous two surveys.
Despite their satisfaction with services, less than half, or 42 percent, of respondents believe they are getting a good return on their property taxes.
This statistic worries District 5 Raj Dhaliwal, who hopes the issue can be addressed by the new council, as well as some of the infrastructure investments allocated to pavement quality by the previous council later in his term.
“People believe what they touch and feel,” Dhaliwal said. “People believe that when their roads aren't rough, people believe there's value when they see the grass cut every month or so, and that's the value they see.”
However, when it comes to the “trade-off” between taxes and services, the survey found that 50 percent of respondents favor raising taxes to maintain or increase services, while 42 percent would favor cutting services to maintain or reduce property taxes.
The 2026 budget includes an overall property tax increase of 3.6 per cent, or about 5.4 per cent for the average homeowner, but Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas has made it clear he would like council to make a “significant” reduction in the increase by “at least half.”
“We think it’s practical,” Farkas said. “We still need to invest in security and we need to make sure we are spending appropriate money on basic infrastructure, we need to start using water pipes. There are a lot of areas we need to build on.”
Calgarians' satisfaction with the way the city is run fell slightly to 59 per cent, down four per cent from the spring survey, while just under half, or 47 per cent of respondents, trust the city, down from 52 per cent in the spring but up from 41 per cent last fall.
The decline in trust “appears to reflect a shift toward neutrality” rather than mistrust, according to city officials.
But those are numbers Farkas said he and the new council “inherited” from the previous mayor and city council, and he hopes to improve on them.
“Calgarians want their views and voices to be reflected in the decisions that are made here,” the new mayor said. “This is our collective commitment.”
Ipsos Public Relations conducted the survey for the city and surveyed 2,500 Calgarians by telephone from July 30, 2025 to August 28, 2025. The poll has a margin of error of ±1.96 percentage points, 19 out of 20 times.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
