Calgary’s top managers expensed $1.36M since 2020, city file shows

The City of Calgary’s senior managers have expensed $1.36 million since 2020, and more than a quarter of it went to employee recognition, according to the city’s own published expense file.

The Senior Management Expenses data set, which the city releases twice a year and which covers the city manager, general managers and directors, lists 5,008 expense lines from 2020 to Feb. 25, 2026, totalling $1,356,254.57 after refunds and credits.

Where the money went

Business travel accounted for $503,375, meals and hosting for $488,497, and employee recognition for $360,104, or 26.6 per cent of the total.

Yearly spending roughly doubled from $193,065 in 2022 to $372,501 in 2025, the highest full year in the file, as in-person events and travel returned after the pandemic. The number of managers named in the file barely changed, from 48 in 2020 to 49 in 2025.

The largest single items were staff events: a $13,020 Stampede breakfast for Corporate Planning and Financial Services and a $10,951 all-staff town hall for Finance, which the file lists as attended by 330 people. Searches of the expense descriptions found 177 town hall lines totalling $189,452, 42 Stampede lines totalling $39,551, and 147 gift card lines totalling $22,719.

What the file does not show

Nothing in the file shows any expense broke a city rule. Council approves these budgets each year, and the file is the city’s own proactive disclosure. Rising totals may reflect the return to in-person work, more people in the file, or changes in how items are coded.

Canada News Media sent questions to the City of Calgary’s media relations office on Nov. 3, asking about the growth in spending, the recognition events and the city’s expense policy. The city did not respond by the deadline, 5 p.m. MT on Nov. 6. We will add its response if it replies.

What it means for you

These expenses are a very small share of the city’s budget, but every line is public. Residents can read the file themselves on the city’s open data portal and ask their councillor what the expense policy allows for staff recognition and town halls.

How we did this. We downloaded all 5,008 rows of the City of Calgary’s Senior Management Expenses data set (y3tg-gbwj) on Nov. 3, 2026, and totalled the amounts by year and category, net of 111 negative lines for refunds and credits. We searched the descriptions for keywords such as “Stampede,” “town hall” and “gift card.”

With reporting by a Canada News Media contributor.