Data · City of Calgary open data
Commercial electrical work in Calgary, by the numbers
Electrical permits at non-residential properties, commercial and industrial building permits, fire alarm and facility permits, and licensed businesses by sector. Aggregates only: no addresses, no names, no contractor rankings.
Commercial and industrial permits, year by year
New buildings and improvements under the City’s commercial and industrial permit classes. Most of the work is in existing buildings: improvements outnumber new buildings many times over.2
| Year | Permits | Total est. cost | Median | Five largest, share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 2,368 | $1.36B | $100,000 | 15.6% |
| 2020 | 1,841 | $0.65B | $80,000 | 12.1% |
| 2021 | 2,078 | $1.47B | $77,000 | 55.4% |
| 2022 | 2,116 | $1.28B | $100,000 | 23.4% |
| 2023 | 2,072 | $1.11B | $100,000 | 11.5% |
| 2024 | 2,325 | $1.11B | $100,000 | 18.1% |
| 2025 | 1,976 | $1.56B | $120,000 | 27.9% |
| 2026* | 1,500 | $1.13B | $118,000 | 33% |
Estimated project cost is the applicant’s estimate for the whole project, not the electrical scope, and a few very large permits move the yearly total. * year to date.
Fire alarm permits: 204 in 2019, 446 in 2025
Installing or altering a fire alarm system needs its own electrical permit (and a building permit). The count has risen every year since 2019.1
About half of each year's annual facility permits are issued in a single month-long batch between April and July (2019: 235 of 478 in month 05; 2020: 247 of 459 in month 07; 2021: 232 of 447 in month 05; 2022: 263 of 457 in month 04; 2023: 115 of 221 in month 06; 2024: 137 of 234 in month 06; 2025: 117 of 232 in month 06). 2026 shows only 14 through 2026-09-24 (232 in all of 2025); the usual batch does not appear in the data yet, so 2026 year-to-date is not comparable and must not be read as a decline. Years 2019–2022 average 460 a year against 229 in 2023–2025: an earlier April/May batch stops after 2022. The City does not document why (renewal handling may have changed), so do not present this as a fall in facility maintenance work.
9,114 permits at non-residential properties, 2023–2025
By the City’s own permit types, and by the kind of property from the assessment roll’s sub-use code. Most permits are contractors altering buildings that already exist.1
By permit type
By property type
A property counts as non-residential when its address matches a non-residential parcel on the current assessment roll; unmatched addresses are left out, so every count is a floor. Grouping sub-use codes by their first letter (C commercial, I industrial) is our rule, not the City’s.
The 25 busiest commercial communities, 2023–2025
Electrical permits at non-residential properties by community. About half of these permits carry no community on the permit record; we fill those from the assessment roll by address. The last column is each community’s rank without that fill.1
| Rank | Community | Permits | Commercial | Industrial | Rank, record only |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Downtown Commercial CoreResidential · Centre | 679 | 631 | 0 | 1 |
| 2 | BeltlineResidential · Centre | 329 | 272 | 4 | 2 |
| 3 | Stoney 3Industrial · Northeast | 320 | 205 | 115 | 131 |
| 4 | East Shepard IndustrialIndustrial · Southeast | 256 | 33 | 213 | 4 |
| 5 | FoothillsIndustrial · East | 202 | 11 | 188 | 5 |
| 6 | Manchester IndustrialIndustrial · Centre | 199 | 49 | 99 | 3 |
| 7 | SunridgeIndustrial · Northeast | 163 | 99 | 41 | 9 |
| 8 | VarsityResidential · Northwest | 155 | 98 | 5 | 6 |
| 9 | HighfieldIndustrial · Centre | 141 | 11 | 114 | 8 |
| 10 | Saddle RidgeResidential · Northeast | 123 | 113 | 0 | 47 |
| 11 | Residual Ward 2 - Sub Area 2CResidual Sub Area · North | 112 | 103 | 0 | 129 |
| 12 | RedstoneResidential · Northeast | 110 | 109 | 0 | 216 |
| 13 | Sage HillResidential · North | 106 | 105 | 0 | 20 |
| 14 | WestwindsIndustrial · Northeast | 106 | 25 | 66 | 13 |
| 15 | Meadowlark ParkResidential · Centre | 103 | 103 | 0 | 11 |
| 16 | South AirwaysIndustrial · Northeast | 101 | 22 | 62 | 15 |
| 17 | BrentwoodResidential · Northwest | 100 | 79 | 0 | 16 |
| 18 | Royal VistaIndustrial · Northwest | 99 | 85 | 6 | 59 |
| 19 | FranklinIndustrial · Northeast | 97 | 29 | 58 | 25 |
| 20 | Alyth/BonnybrookIndustrial · Centre | 90 | 1 | 74 | 7 |
| 21 | HorizonIndustrial · Northeast | 90 | 17 | 62 | 12 |
| 22 | Fairview IndustrialIndustrial · South | 89 | 29 | 35 | 24 |
| 23 | Great PlainsIndustrial · East | 86 | 2 | 84 | 17 |
| 24 | West SpringsResidential · West | 86 | 77 | 0 | 76 |
| 25 | CornerstoneResidential · Northeast | 85 | 76 | 0 | 94 |
Licensed businesses by sector
Active business licences in the City’s open data as of 2026-09-25. A business can hold more than one licence type, so sectors overlap. Offices and health clinics have no licence type of their own and are not counted.3
| Sector | Businesses |
|---|---|
| Retail stores (premises) | 8,076 |
| Restaurants and food service (premises) | 7,164 |
| Personal services (salons, barbers, fitness, tattoo, massage centres) | 3,439 |
| Warehousing and wholesale | 2,237 |
| Automotive repair, body shops, dealers and fuel | 1,992 |
| Manufacturing | 1,680 |
| Apartment building operators | 1,268 |
| Hotels, entertainment venues and cinemas | 564 |
| Private schools and training | 506 |
- Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – City of Calgary.
- Aggregates only. No addresses, no names of people, no business, applicant or contractor names, no permit numbers, and no contractor counts or rankings.
Sources
- Electrical Permits and Inspections (dataset vxgy-id5s)The City of Calgary, Open Government Licence – City of Calgary · queried 2026-09-25
- Building Permits (dataset c2es-76ed)The City of Calgary, Open Government Licence – City of Calgary · queried 2026-09-25
- Calgary Business Licenses (dataset vdjc-pybd)The City of Calgary, Open Government Licence – City of Calgary · queried 2026-09-25