Calgary officials address memo claiming federal housing funds ‘paused’ over rezoning repeal

Discussions between city officials and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation about the future of Calgary’s federal housing funds, if citywide rezoning is repealed, overshadowed budget talks Thursday, with top city officials addressing the situation to council.

It comes after Global News obtained an internal city memo sent to councillors and the mayor last week, which said $129 million in Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) money designated for Calgary is “paused pending further clarity on the status of citywide rezoning.”

The memo stated city administration was informed of the funding pause during a meeting on Friday morning with representatives from CMHC.

CMHC, however, is pushing back on the memo and said Wednesday that Calgary’s Housing Accelerator funding “has not been paused,” adding “no official decisions have been made.”

On Thursday, the city’s chief operations officer, Stuart Dalgleish, addressed city council to explain the memo and the timeline of events related to citywide rezoning and the federal HAF money.

“We want to provide you information, and sometimes we need to do that quickly,” Dalgleish told council. “The comment about the funding being paused was based on the information that we knew and understood from the meeting we had that morning on Friday. We thought it was important to let you know… If there was confusion created out of that, I certainly apologize for that.”

According to Dalgleish, the purpose of the memo was to inform city council that there was “elevated risk” when it came to the funding, and city administration was going to review implications, risk and mitigation related to the funding, including a previous recommendation that contingency funding wasn’t required in the proposed budget.

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Calgary was awarded $251.3 million, including top-ups, from the federal Housing Accelerator Fund, with $122.9 million allocated so far.  The next installment of the fund is set for the end of March 2026.

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There have been ongoing questions about whether the federal funding was tied to the previous council’s decision to approve citywide rezoning, which changed Calgary’s default residential zoning to allow for more housing types, such as duplexes and rowhouses on a single property, to increase the city’s housing supply.

According to Dalgleish, citywide rezoning was included in a set of recommendations from the city’s Housing Affordability Task Force that council approved to be included in the city’s housing strategy in June 2023, the same day an action plan was approved to apply for the Housing Accelerator Fund.

City council approved the housing strategy in September 2024, just weeks ahead of Calgary being awarded money from the fund.

The previous council was given an information toolkit about the move ahead of an April 2024 debate on whether to approve citywide rezoning, which said that if council doesn’t approve citywide rezoning, the “final HAF payment may be impacted” if Calgary couldn’t reach the housing targets laid out in the agreement with the federal government.

“Most of the funding would not be impacted and a portion could be impacted,” Dalgleish said. “A risk was identified.”

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The toolkit the previous council received also noted that the Housing Accelerator Fund money “is not relevant” to council’s decision on citywide rezoning.

“Administration, based on what was known at the time, has consistently provided sound, professional and truthful advice to council,” Dalgleish said.

Earlier this year, Calgary announced it had surpassed the targets set out in the Housing Accelerator Fund a year ahead of schedule.

The targets set out in 2023 included 41,858 new housing units by October 2026. According to the city, 44,276 new units were built in less than two years.

City council is set to debate a motion from several councillors and the mayor next month that calls on city administration to repeal citywide rezoning, which would require a public hearing early next year.

Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean previously said he felt “misled” about a connection between the funding and the policy.

“The email was very clear that the money was paused … and now we’re told it’s not paused,” McLean said Thursday. “It’s pretty murky.”

Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas said he was “not satisfied at all” with the explanation, and said he plans to continue to push forward with repeal while advocating to the federal government.

“Calgarians spoke during the last election, they were very clear that blanket rezoning was not working for Calgary,” Farkas told reporters. “So I’m going to champion that message to our federal counterparts and to be crystal clear, no decision has been made.”

CMHC told Global News on Wednesday it is “aware of Calgary’s proposal” to repeal citywide rezoning and is reviewing the details.

“We will also reiterate, we expect municipalities to fulfill their agreements,” CMHC said in its statement. “If a partner’s agreed upon commitments aren’t met or are reversed, this puts their HAF funding at risk.”