Long range financial plan
The purpose of the Long Range Financial Plan (LRFP) is to provide a plan to deal with the 10-year financial challenges facing The City beyond the current Service Plans and Budgets cycle, to progress toward long-term financial sustainability and resilience. The 2021-2032 Long Range Financial Plan is a thorough strategic plan based on projections of The City’s operating and capital requirements for ten years, on top of the current four-year budget cycle, extending to 2032. The plan manages changes by identifying emerging risks and providing corresponding financial strategies.
Projected 2021-2032 key issues and trends
Although The City’s current financial position is sound, there are systemic issues and emerging challenges that could potentially impact its capacity to provide services for Calgarians in the short and long-term. In the short-term, Calgary faces the combination of challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, ongoing volatility in the global energy market, elevated downtown office vacancy and reduction in non-residential property assessment values, and tax share. Long-term challenges include demographic shifts and an aging population, growth of the knowledge economy, technological changes, climate change, global trends and events, and funding uncertainty from other orders of government.
To learn about the financial strategies that address these issues and trends, check out the 2021-2032 Long Range Financial Plan Overview and complete report.
Changing Environment
Since the release of the last LRFP in 2011, Calgary’s economic environment has changed significantly. Periodic updates to the projections are needed to ensure that the strategies reflect current and anticipated challenges. The City’s business planning and budgeting practices have also changed from department-based to service-based structure. This current LRFP updated its methodology to reflect these changes, which illustrates an evolution or maturing of the LRFP process.
Here is how the LRFP connects to other planning work:
The 2021-2032 LRFP was presented to Council in January 2022 to set the financial context for other planning and budgeting efforts underway across the organization. Future LRFP updates will continue to provide Council with an ongoing, longer-term perspective on The City's financial prospects. The document will continue to be refined, its projections will build on more customized data and scenarios, and its strategies will continue to be tested by changing circumstance.
