As Calgary continues to experience robust growth, the city's civic partners are calling for increased funding to expand their facilities and meet rising demand. These organizations, ranging from wholly owned subsidiaries like Calgary Economic Development to independent groups such as Tourism Calgary, presented their annual updates to the city council's community development committee on Thursday.
Growing Need for Space
A recurring theme in the yearly reports was the urgent need to modernize or expand facilities to accommodate increasing visitation numbers. Committee members heard updates on several major expansion projects, including the Werklund Centre (formerly Arts Commons), the Hangar Flight Museum, Contemporary Calgary, and the MNP Family and Community Sports Centre.
Lauren Maillet, interim executive director of the Hangar Flight Museum, highlighted the facility's space constraints along McCall Way N.E. "We're at the point where our staff are working out of closets, essentially, because that's how little office space we have," Maillet said.
Record Visitation and Revenue
The museum has seen a significant increase in visitors, from 33,000 in 2019 to nearly 49,000 last year. This surge in patronage led to a record revenue year, with the aviation museum generating over $636,000 in 2025, up from just over $493,000 in 2023. To address space limitations, the museum is pursuing a $60-million expansion project to replace its temporary tent hangar with a permanent structure, tripling the facility's size from 20,000 to 60,000 square feet.
The tent hangar, installed in 2009 as a temporary solution, has suffered damage from heavy snow and wind over the years. "It was meant to be a 10-year fix while we could build something more permanent, because something that's unheated and not temperature-controlled, not humidity-controlled, is not safe for artifacts long-term," Maillet explained. The expansion is currently in the architectural planning stage, with construction not expected to begin until 2030. "This is not an optional thing ... we need to make sure that this (project) can happen," she added.
Other Civic Partners
Thursday's meeting provided a rare opportunity for civic partners to present their needs to local lawmakers ahead of the council's four-year budget deliberations in November. Next week, representatives will meet with administration to discuss budget submissions for 2027.
Kyle Burks, president and CEO of the Wilder Institute (formerly the Calgary Zoo), said that while the zoo does not plan to expand its overall footprint, it is pursuing a series of habitat renovations ahead of its centennial in 2029. These include a multi-phased redevelopment of Exploration Asia, following a recently completed overhaul of Wild Canada. The goal is to keep pace with the city's population growth and increasing visitor numbers.
