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High-ranking Calgary city officials claimed at least four times more in expenses than earlier reported over a three-year period.
My late-2018 investigation for the Toronto Star revealed significant discrepancies in reported expenses by senior officials at city hall. From 2015 to 2017, city manager Jeff Fielding and several general managers claimed nearly $180,000 in expenses, but only $42,123 was disclosed on the city’s website, the sole public source for expense reporting.
The painstaking analysis, based on over 1,400 pages of records (paper copies!) obtained through a Freedom of Information request, highlighted missing details such as claimant names, expense justifications, and meeting attendees, leaving taxpayers in the dark about how public funds were spent.
The report exposed systemic shortcomings in Calgary’s transparency practices compared to other Canadian jurisdictions. Expenses related to travel, conferences, memberships, and miscellaneous purchases were not publicly disclosed, unlike Alberta’s government, which sets a higher standard by publishing detailed, searchable expense records.
The revelations prompted then-city manager Jeff Fielding to acknowledge the inadequacy of the policies and promise reforms, though he provided few specifics at the time. Criticism from advocacy groups and councillors further fuelled calls for the city to adopt more rigorous reporting standards akin to the province’s “gold standard.”
As a result of the investigation, city hall committed to a more comprehensive expense reporting system, culminating in the publication of detailed expense data on its open data portal. It was a significant step toward improving transparency at Calgary city hall.
Below is a searchable database of the expenses claimed between 2015 and 2017 by senior city staff that were obtained through FOIP.