Months ahead of Calgary’s four-year budget talks, Ward 14 Coun. Landon Johnston leaked confidential budget documents to Global News.
Johnston argued his actions were in the public interest due to the budget including a property tax hike, suggesting that budgetary measures are an example of talks that shouldn’t be behind closed doors.
Johnston also argued that he only leaked proposed budget information and that no personal information was included.
"Confidential" leaks have been happening all year... Mayor Farkas: crickets....... Release of information early regarding your money. Farkas: Straight to Jail.
— Landon Johnston (@Landonforward14) September 3, 2026
It was me. I can't keep being complicit in hiding things from Calgarians (even if it is "process") and I won't hide… pic.twitter.com/iamOSEvxwl
According to Global News, the leaked documents showed that the property tax revenue would need to increase.
“The confidential documents [...] indicate property tax revenue would need to increase by 20.2 per cent in 2027 to fund an additional $510 million in operating spending required to cover a number of budget requests from various city departments and partners,” reported Global News.
These documents were presented to council during a closed session on July 28, which also indicated that if the spending requests got approved property taxes would need to increase by 8.5 per cent in 2028, nine per cent in 2029 and 8.9 per cent in 2030.l.
During this meeting, council reviewed more than 107 requests for funding increases from organizations such as Calgary Transit, the Calgary Fire Department and Calgary Police Services.
“Typically, council goes behind closed doors when disclosure may be harmful to the business interests of a third party, harmful to personal privacy, harmful to law enforcement or involve confidential evaluations,” according to Global News.
In a statement on X, Mayor Jeromy Farkas explained the contents of the leaked documents:
“[This] number is what you get when you take every department request, every proposed program, every spending increase, every want and every wish, every downloaded responsibility from the provincial government, add them all together.”
“That’s a wish list, not a tax increase,” Farkas concluded.
Under Section 153 of the Municipal Government Act, council members are:
“To keep in confidence matters discussed in private at a council or council committee meeting until discussed at a meeting held in public.”
Council does not currently have a municipal code of conduct.
This is due to the Alberta government repealing individual codes of conduct last year, with plans to implement a province-wide framework.
Calgary city council is formally raising Johnston’s actions to Municipal Affairs Minister Dan Williams to take whatever steps are necessary in response to the leak.
The vote to do so was approved 12-2. Ward 1 Coun. Kim Tyers and Ward 12 Coun. Mike Jamieson opposed the motion.
Johnston did not attend this special meeting on Sept. 8th. He has contacted Williams to review council’s use of closed-door meetings to assess if they consistently met the necessary criteria to exclude the public.
“Our office has received a letter from Councillor Landon Johnston detailing concerns related to municipal transparency,” Williams said in a statement to Global News.
“We also understand that we should be expecting another letter from Calgary City Council, we’ll review both these letters and determine whether any further action is required.”
While Johnston said he won’t leak confidential information in the future, he also said he stands by his decision according to Calgary City News.
“I broke a rule but sometimes breaking rules is the right thing to do,” Johnston said.
Additionally, Johnston plans to propose a public budget open house at city hall to offer Calgarians access to budget information.
According to the leaked documents, City councilors have discussed a pre-budget scenario of a 15 per cent property tax increase in 2027 during another closed-door session, but the final numbers won’t be made public until this November.
