No new funding for traffic safety in proposed city budget despite decade-high fatalities
Image Source: City of Calgary
While the Calgary Police are calling it the highest death toll on our streets in a decade, City Administration is proposing business as usual in their 2026 Budget Adjustments as a rapidly increasing number of Calgarians are killed and maimed. So far this year there have been 33 fatal collisions, including 13 involving a pedestrian and 2 involving a cyclist, already surpassing 2024, which was the previous 10-year high. These tragic incidents keep happening, over and over and over and over again, and again, including 3 pedestrian fatalities in 24 hours in October, and another pedestrian killed on Wednesday Nov 19th. Plus a barrage of regular non-fatal pedestrian related collisions like this recent one where a driver collided their collided into an adult and child.
Alarmingly, the number of fatal traffic collisions in Calgary continues to increase, including fatal collisions involving pedestrians. (Data source: City of Calgary)
The estimated societal cost of collisions in Calgary was estimated to be $1.4-billion in 2024 according to the City of Calgary's Safer Mobility Plan 2025 Annual Report.
Infographic source: City of Calgary Safer Mobility Plan - 2025 Annual Report
The new City Council must take action on the traffic safety crisis
Every year, City Council makes adjustments to the 4-year city budget in response to current needs and evolving challenges facing the city. The new Calgary City Council will be deciding on 2026 budget adjustments starting with a public hearing on Monday, November 24th where Calgarians will have the opportunity to tell City Council to take the street safety crisis seriously and adequately fund real safety improvements.
Calgary Police are ‘hamstrung’ by the Province’s ban on automated enforcement
Former Calgary Police Chief Neufeld raised the alarm over Province’s ban on automated traffic enforcement in December 2024 (Source: Calgary Police Service)
Unfortunately, the Provincial government’s war on traffic safety has rendered the Calgary Police “hamstrung in their abilities to address the traffic safety concerns that exist in our municipalities”, according to former Calgary Police Chief Mark Neufeld.
"By further restricting our automated enforcement efforts, I have no doubt there will be an increase in serious injury and fatal collisions in Calgary."
City Council can and must do more than a social media campaign to address the traffic safety crisis
The City of Calgary and Calgary Police Service launched the ‘Join the Drive to Zero’ social media campaign in response to the 10-year high fatalities on Calgary streets. (Source video: City of Calgary on Youtube)
In response to the current crisis that has ensued, the City of Calgary and Calgary Police Service have launched a joint social media campaign called “Join the Drive to Zero” towards the common goal of Vision Zero - “mobility free of fatalities and major injuries”. While the campaign’s overarching goal is laudable, a social media campaign alone falls well short of the kind of response that's needed to seriously address the deadly crisis on our city’s streets.
Meanwhile, the City of Calgary’s 2026 Budget Adjustments proposed by City Administration do little more than address basic road maintenance, without substantial funding for the street safety design improvements that are needed to actually reduce mobility fatalities and major injuries, especially in the traffic safety enforcement vacuum created by the Province.
City Council must invest in redesigning our streets for safety
The City of Calgary already has the tools and solutions to make neighbourhood streets safer - City Council just needs to adequately fund the work. (Image source: City of Calgary)
Without the capacity for Calgary Police Service to enforce traffic safety on our streets, City Council must show leadership and take action to adequately fund new investment in redesigning our neighbourhood streets for safety in this face of this crisis.
This includes new funding for traffic calming measures, enhanced pedestrian crosswalks and expansion of the protected wheeling network well beyond the current snail's pace in the existing 2023-2026 base budget.
📣TAKE ACTION: Help us tell City Council to invest in street safety improvements to address the unacceptable increase in deaths and injury on our streets
📫 1) Email City Council
Sign up to speak at the City Council budget public hearings starting on Monday, November 24th. Language translation services are available if needed.
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💬 2) Speak at the City Council public budget hearings
Sign up to speak at the City Council budget public hearings starting on Monday, November 24th. Language translation services are available if needed.
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📨 3) Sign up for Project Calgary email updates on the 2026 budget adjustments
Stay connected on the latest news and advocacy on the budget adjustments.
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