The City of Calgary will receive its third installment of federal housing funds previously deemed “at-risk” over council’s decision to repeal citywide rezoning, but the final payment comes with new conditions.
On Wednesday, Mayor Jeromy Farkas announced the federal government had reaffirmed the city would receive the next instalment of the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), set to total $64.7 million.
“This is a validation that what we’re doing here in Calgary is working, we’re leading the country in building housing of all types for all stages of life.” Farkas said at a news conference.
“We’re going to continue to lead and thanks to this most recent validation and re-endorsement from the federal government, the path forward is a lot more clear for us.”
Calgary was awarded $251.3 million, including top-ups, from the federal fund with $122.9 million allocated through the first two installments.
However, there has been an ongoing back and forth about the remaining $129 million in HAF funding earmarked for Calgary, with warnings from both city administration and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation that the funds may be “at risk” dependent on council’s decision on citywide rezoning.
“Calgarians were clear, a blanket approach to rezoning did not fit our city,” Farkas said. “So we hit reset.”
Earlier this month, city council repealed citywide rezoning, a move that will see 306,774 residential properties across the city re-designated back to their original low-density residential districts.
The policy, which was adopted by the previous city council in 2024, changed the city’s base residential zoning to allow for more housing types to be developed on a single residential property like rowhomes and duplexes.
“There was no requirement under that agreement for blanket rezoning, no way, no how, no shape,” said Robert Lehodey with Calgarians for Thoughtful Growth. “There was no legal basis for CMHC or the federal government to even suggest the money was not forthcoming.”
Although the decision didn’t impact the third instalment of the fund, the fourth and final instalment scheduled for April 2027 will now face new conditions.
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“Recognizing the progress that Calgary has made to date and Mayor Farkas’ commitment to develop a ‘more nuanced approach to land use policy’ that continues to align with the city’s HAF commitments, the decision was made to issue Calgary’s third HAF installment with certain conditions,” a spokesperson for federal housing minister Gregor Robertson wrote in a statement.
Those conditions include that council indicate it will adopt a zoning replacement that “allows a minimum of four units to be built on a lot for a significant majority of lots across the city,” and that the replacement plan is “in effect or significantly developed” prior to Oct. 27, 2026.
In a letter to the mayor, Robertson said he believes “this ties in well” with Farkas’ previous statements to repeal and replace citywide rezoning.
A replacement plan for the contentious policy was also a campaign commitment from Farkas, housing advocates said Wednesday, and the reaffirmed funding “doesn’t change that equation.”
“That is still a commitment he has not honoured,” said Willem Klumpenhouwer, co-founder of More Neighbours Calgary. “So I’d like to see that commitment regardless of what the federal funding situation looks like.”
According to Farkas, he will not replace citywide rezoning with “a new blanket rezoning” and Calgary is within “striking range” of allowing four units as a right on half of residential properties in the city.
He noted this can be achieved partly due to growth in new neighbourhoods on the city’s outskirts that are already zoned to allow for four units.
However, Farkas said he’d consider forgoing the final instalment of HAF money if a new plan can’t be developed.
“That’s a discussion and debate that needs to be had by our council in full consultation with Calgarians, in terms of how and if we go down that road, and whether the say $60 million or so may be worth that level of approach,” Farkas said.
According to some on council, there is a desire to seek a “built-in-Calgary” approach to increasing density in the city’s established neighbourhoods through local area plans.
“There’s some places it makes no sense to have (four units as a right), and in some places it makes sense to have eight, or 10 or 12,” said Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot. “Let’s look at achieving that more as an average rather than a site specific four by right.”
Ward 4 Coun. DJ Kelly said he hopes the new federal conditions “light a little bit of a fire underneath city council” to get to work on a replacement plan.
“It also aligns with what we heard during the public hearing that density can exist in the city in appropriate places,” Kelly said. “If we put those appropriate changes in place, which I believe are relatively minor, then we can get the rest of the funding as well.”
According to city officials, 61,000 units have been built in Calgary since 2023 with HAF supporting 13,000 of those units, as well as 1,500 non-market units.
“This third and fourth payment will be supporting just over 1,000 non-market units,” said City of Calgary chief housing officer Reid Hendry.
“It’s immensely important we get this third and fourth payment so we can continue to lean in on that non-market housing gap that we have here at the city.”
The original housing targets set out by the federal government included 41,858 new housing units by October 2026.
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