Annual Operating Variance & Timeline

Annual operating variance & timeline

When we spend less than we budget for or have higher revenue, we have a favourable operating variance. We keep a close eye on this and report it to Council regularly. Council can use these funds to support Calgarians, businesses and the community.

Managing our finances

We manage money carefully and responsibly. We follow the rules in the Municipal Government Act, City Charter and Council Policy guidelines. We only budget what's needed to run City services.

Timeline

Each year, we follow a process to notify Council and confirm our operating variance.

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March, June and September

Start Date | End Date

Our quarterly progress reports contain an estimate of the operating variance for the current year.

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November

Start Date | End Date

We share an updated estimate of the annual operating variance with Council during budget discussions. They use this information to decide if these funds should be used for one-time initiatives in next year’s budget.

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Following April (Click to see what the funds are used to cover)

Start Date | End Date

We release the Annual Financial Report which contains the confirmed operating variance. Any unused funds are transferred to our Fiscal Stability Reserve.

View Annual Financial Report

 We use the funds to cover:

  • emergency operational situations 
  • unplanned reductions in revenue 
  • urgent capital expenditures 
  • one-time operating budget expenditures 

2025 annual operating variance

The 2025 second quarter favourable operating variance is $221 million. 

Q2 2025 favourable operating variance

Detailed description

2025 second quarter favourable operating variance ($ Million)

Investment income - $140M

Community services - $11M

Operational services - $14M

Other corporate revenues (net) - $22M

Planning and Development Services - $25M

Other departments - $8M

The variance came from:

  • Higher revenues in investment income, including:
    • Higher interest income and one-time realized gains from rebalancing equity investment portfolio
    • Higher than anticipated revenue from fines and penalties
    • Higher admission revenues from City-operated facilities and timing of grant receipts and disbursements.
  • Lower-than-expected costs due to timing of expenditures:
    • Less corporate contingencies requirement for unforeseen circumstances
    • Lower than anticipated contracted services and operational costs.
  • Lower salary and wages across departments due to  temporary savings from vacant positions.

See the details in the Financial and Economic Update Second Quarter 2025

Using the variance

At the June 3, 2025 Strategic Meeting of Council, $25M of the projected year-end variance for 2025 was committed towards high priority infrastructure needs. The remaining forecasted variance will be committed towards funding high priority operating and capital requests during the 2026 Adjustments.

Any uncommitted funds will be transferred to the Fiscal Stability Reserve at year-end. 

2024

$276.3 million. Here’s where Council allocated these funds:

  • $57 million to fund high-priority 2025 investments including:
    • Housing
    • Community Safety and Social Wellbeing
    • Transit and Mobility    
  • $134 million to the Green Line Capital Fund
  • $85.3 million was uncommitted and transferred to the Fiscal Stability Reserve.

2023

$236.4 million. Here’s where Council allocated these funds:

  • $100 million to fund high-priority 2024 investments including:
    - Affordable housing
    - Public safety
    - Transit
  • $137 million was uncommitted and transferred to the Fiscal Stability Reserve.

2022

$258.7 million. Here’s where Council allocated these funds:

  • In November, $65 million to:
    - maintain public transit fees at 2022 levels
    - support Calgary’s Mental Health and Addiction Strategy
    - increase funding for the Calgary Fire Department.
  • In April:
    - $32 million as a one-time budget increase for Calgary Transit to offset pandemic impacts.
  • $161.7 million was uncommitted and transferred to the Fiscal Stability Reserve.

Investing for Calgarians

Council uses one-time funds from the operating variance to further support Calgarians, businesses and the community.

See our 2025 service investments
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