Calgary’s Blue Sky City rebrand sparks ‘waste award’ nomination

A welcome sign featuring Calgary's new branding as the "Blue Sky City." (CTV News)

Calgary was nominated for a dubious award from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) thanks to the city’s new slogan.

Calgary’s slogan used to be ‘Be Part of the Energy,’ but officials announced a rebranding to ‘Blue Sky City’ in 2024.

The civic rebrand was developed through a partnership between the City of Calgary, Calgary Economic Development and Tourism Calgary.

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Installation on new “Welcome to Calgary” road signs with the logo began in March 2025.

On Wednesday, the CTF announced its 28th annual Teddy Waste Awards, featuring their picks for the biggest misuse of taxpayer money by politicians and bureaucrats.

Though Toronto was the winner of the 2026 Municipal Teddy award, Calgary was a nominee.

“$4.8 million, two years of work and consultations with 129 organizations. After all that, what did Calgary bureaucrats come up with for their new city brand? Blue Sky City,” said CTF spokesperson Franco Terrazzano.

“You know what? Calgary bureaucrats, they didn’t need to spend millions of dollars on that — all they had to do was look up to the sky — and that’s free.”

Toronto won the municipal award for the $2,000 spent on a commemorative plaque celebrating Conrad the racoon more than a decade after the animal was found dead in a park.

The CTF’s mascot, Porky the Waste Hater, was on hand dressed in a tuxedo to help Terrazzano announce the other winners in Calgary on Wednesday.

B.C. Premier David Eby won the Provincial Teddy Award for spending $350,000 on three soccer balls that aren’t round and can’t be kicked because they’re made of “wood-leather.”

The Canada Revenue Agency won the Federal Teddy Award after a finding by the auditor general that calls to the CRA are only answered calls 32 per cent of the time.

“It’s actually worse if you do get someone from the CRA on the phone, because the CRA gives out the wrong tax answers to individual tax questions 83 per cent of the time,” Terrazzano said. “Canadians might as well just as a Magic 8 Ball their tax questions.”

The Lifetime Achievement Award for Waste was given to the Social Science and Humanities Research Council.

“It’s the federal government’s $1 billion slush fund that pays for research the government claims matters most to Canadians,” Terrazzano said.

Terrazzano then pointed to $100,000 spend by the council to study the birth, life and death of a grocery cart — and $17,000 on a study on casual sex among young adults living in Jasper.