Fall survey results reveal public trust in Calgary city hall is rebounding

Public trust in the City of Calgary is the highest it’s been in eight years, according to the municipality’s latest citizen satisfaction survey.

Results of the semi-annual research poll, which Ipsos Public Affairs conducted over four weeks this past summer, were released Thursday. The data was compiled from answers from 2,500 respondents and will be presented to city council next week.

Results suggest several key indicators are trending positively compared to last year’s fall citizen satisfaction survey, Ipsos’ report states. Quality of life, satisfaction with municipal services, trust in city hall and perceptions of value for tax dollars all saw single-digit improvements.

“Around three-quarters rate the overall quality of life in Calgary as ‘good,'” the firm stated in its report. “Another positive change in 2026 is a decrease in the proportion of Calgarians who feel that their quality of life has deteriorated in the past three years.

“Around one-half now say it has ‘worsened,’ a return to levels last seen in 2022.”

Pride in being a Calgarian is also on the rise, according to Ipsos. More than four-fifths of respondents said they are proud to be Calgarian — an improvement over the last two fall surveys and close to levels last seen in 2020.

The results mark a dramatic rebound from the fall survey two years ago, which indicated Calgarians’ confidence in their quality of life was its lowest in nearly a decade of polling.

“One of the clearest findings in this year’s research is growing confidence in Calgary’s future and in the City of Calgary as its municipal government,” stated Chief Administrative Officer David Duckworth in a city news release.

That confidence is also reflected nationally, the city’s top bureaucrat added, with Calgary outperforming comparable Canadian cities on key measures including quality of life, service satisfaction, trust and value for tax dollars.

“But greater confidence also comes with high expectations,” Duckworth said. “Our responsibility is to turn that optimism into action and keep delivering for Calgarians as our city grows.”

Compared to last fall’s survey, public trust in the city went up by nine percentage points, with 56 per cent of survey respondents saying they trust the municipality — the highest percentage recorded since 2018.

Of those surveyed, 77 per cent rated their quality of life as good, up six points from 71 per cent last year.

Meanwhile, 73 per cent said they are satisfied with municipal services — the highest percentage since 2019 and up six points from 67 per cent last year.

Dissatisfaction in the city went down eight percentage points, from 24 per cent to 16 per cent.

Four-fifths of respondents said they believe Calgary is a great place to make a life, while around seven-in-10 agreed it is a great place to make a living. Both measures have improved over fall 2025 and fall 2024, Ipsos noted.

However, a majority of Calgarians — 51 per cent — still don’t feel they receive good value for their tax dollars. While still a majority, it marked a seven-point reduction from the fall 2025 survey, when 58 per cent said they don’t receive good tax dollar value.

Ipsos conducted the survey from Aug. 4 to 28, with 2,500 Calgarians responding via telephone. The research was conducted using numbers from both cellphones (70 per cent) and landlines (30 per cent) to obtain a random and statistically representative sample of Calgarians with a margin of error of ± 2.0 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

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