CALGARY — Naheed Nenshi and Jyoti Gondek warmed the Calgary mayor’s chair for a combined 15 years, from 2010 to 2025, saddling Calgarians and city hall with a left-wing ideology; leaving ‘legacies’ such as a sticks and stones thing near Canada Olympic Park, a blue ring thing in northeast Calgary, a climate emergency, blanket upzoning and other things.
However, their most damning legacy is ignoring the deteriorating condition of the city’s infrastructure system, resulting in two major ruptures of the Bearspaw south feeder main, which supplies most of the city’s water needs, as well as those of Tsuut'ina Nation, Airdrie, Chestermere and Strathmore.
Calgary city council’s executive committee heard from city administration on Tuesday the cost of Nenshi’s and Gondek’s negligence is going cost $609.5 million, which administration is asking city council to add to the city’s capital budget in 2026 and 2027, for water infrastructure projects.
More than $1 billion in borrowing for infrastructure maintenance was already approved for this year’s budget by city council.
“This is very much about catching up to where the city needs to be,” Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas told reporters.
In a brief, city administration indicated $222 million of the increased funding would be dedicated to a new 22-Km feeder main north from the Bearspaw water treatment plant, which is under construction, while $15 million would cover advanced metering infrastructure.
“Failing to take action would put service reliability at risk, which is vital for maintaining the availability and quality of essential services,” reads the brief. “Continued investment is needed to address vulnerabilities and ensure the system remains strong and resilient for the community.”
The cost of repairs to, and replacement of, the Bearspaw south feeder main is estimated to be $439 million, according to administration, with $71.6 million already getting approval. The funding increase would add $367.4 million to the project, with $318 million going to replace the feeder main with a new steel pipe parallel to the existing line.
“We were always going to be building that, but we were going to be doing it over 2026, 2027 and 2028,” said Michael Thompson, general manager of infrastructure services. “We’ve accelerated all of that and we’re going to be delivering it in 2026, so we need that funding now to do all that work.”
Water restrictions return to Calgary and area on Monday for four weeks, while repairs are made to the feeder main, at a projected cost of $40 million.
“This price tag, it doesn’t just deliver the replacement of the line, but it also brings back our existing line that’s failing, back to a serviceable standard,” said Farkas. “So, we actually get two Bearspaw feeder mains for this price tag.”
The majority of the funding request would be financed through self-supported debt, expected to push the city’s debt limit to 45% in 2026 and 50% in 2027, with administration expecting water rates to increase by 14%.
“It was a lot of neglect and it’s unacceptable. I’m angry but we have to move forward, and we have to get it fixed,” said Ward 13 Cllr. Dan McLean. “Lately there’s not a lot of good news for Calgarians for pocketbook issues like paying for this water pipe and property taxes.”
The executive committee approved sending the funding request to the city council meeting on March 17.