Calgary city council is set to debate whether to revoke the city’s 2021 climate emergency declaration on Tuesday. If the motion from Ward 14 Coun. Landon Johnston passes, the declaration would be immediately reversed, and city hall staff would be directed to remove all references to the 2021 proclamation from official city documents, strategies, plans, reports, communications, websites, and public materials.
Motions brought forward
Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot and Ward 14 Coun. Landon Johnston have each brought forward motions calling on council to rescind the declaration. The motions passed through the executive committee earlier this month and are scheduled to be debated at Tuesday’s regular council meeting.
Chabot’s motion also asks for a full accounting of climate-related spending since the declaration was made more than four years ago. He wants the city to come up with recommendations on how climate-related spending can better align with core municipal responsibilities and financial sustainability.
“If you can’t demonstrate there’s a benefit from doing something, then why are we doing it?” Chabot previously told Postmedia.
Background of the declaration
The previous council approved the emergency declaration in a 13-2 vote in November 2021, following similar moves by other cities, including Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Edmonton. The declaration helped guide council’s adoption the following year of a climate strategy that aims for Calgary to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.
Johnston, among the new councillors elected last fall, has panned the proclamation as a performative gesture. If his motion passes, the proclamation would be reversed, and city hall staff would be directed to remove all references to a climate emergency from official documents.
Previous debate and budget cuts
This is the second time in less than a year that council will debate the issue. In September 2025, at the final regular meeting before the municipal election, council voted 10-4 against a proposal from then-Ward 1 councillor Sonya Sharp to rescind the climate emergency declaration.
At that meeting, the city’s general manager of planning and development services said the declaration had helped Calgary leverage $287 million in grants or investment from other orders of government and private-sector sources.
When council passed the 2026 budget in December, it approved an amendment from Ward 1 Coun. Kim Tyers to shave $9 million from the climate and environment business unit’s budget, about 25 per cent. Her amendment originally sought to eliminate the department’s entire budget.
