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Calgary city councillors want Ottawa to pitch in more funding to help ease the strain retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports are placing on Canadian municipalities.
Calgary faces between $308 million and $449 million in tariff-related risk on existing contracts, city administration estimated in an update to council’s executive committee on Monday. Roughly two-thirds of the projected risk is a result of Canada’s counter-tariffs, administration said.
Mayor Jeromy Farkas said he has directly advocated to Ottawa for more support. In a letter he sent to Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne last week, Farkas called for the federal government to retroactively exempt municipalities from retaliatory tariff costs on contracts and orders prior to Sept. 8, and to create a dedicated tariff relief fund for municipalities to access.
Counter-tariffs are even affecting Ottawa’s grant funding to Calgary, Farkas said during Monday’s meeting.
“Like, say, for light-rail vehicle procurement, they’re giving this amount of money but half of it is getting pissed away because of their charges on us,” said Farkas.
“So it’s making their investment in local government less effective.”
The City of Calgary is facing hundreds of millions of dollars in tariff-related risks, say municipal officials. And as CBC’s Brendan Coulter reports, the majority of the potential damage is due to Ottawa’s retaliatory tariffs in the trade war.
In September, Canada introduced a range of counter-tariffs on more than 700 U.S. products in response to a new round of 50-per-cent tariffs introduced on Canadian goods by the U.S.
Administration said the city has paid $1.2 million in tariff costs so far since March 2025, and that it’s currently negotiating contracts that would add another $5.7 million to that total.
The ongoing trade war’s pressure on Calgary’s budget feels especially pressing for a city council that has made funding major infrastructure a top priority. Earlier this year, a city report put a $49-billion price tag on the cost of building and maintaining Calgary’s aging capital infrastructure over the next decade.
Still, Farkas noted Calgary is in a good position to deal with the trade war, because the city works with Canadian suppliers in 95 per cent of its contracts.
Administration said the city is also trying to mitigate the financial hit it takes from tariffs by seeking out more suppliers from other countries, and embedding tariff protections into contracts.
John Fragos, a press secretary in Champagne’s office, said on Monday that Ottawa has increased funding for municipalities to better support them in response to tariffs. He noted the federal government has contributed at least $59 million toward Calgary this quarter.
Ottawa’s recent investments in Calgary include funding for a water project in the north end, the Olympic Oval speedskating facility, and a pledge to work with Alberta to advance a high-speed rail project between the city and Edmonton.
Coun. Jennifer Wyness argued counter-tariffs’ cost to Calgary’s budget shows how out of touch other levels of government are with how expensive it is for local governments to properly fund their infrastructure. She pointed to rising water rates that Calgarians could soon have to pay as an example of how that cost gets translated to residents who already face an affordability crisis.
“We need to work on a clear communication to show those with the bigger bank accounts how their policies are harming our municipality,” said Wyness.
