In the summer of 2023, I warned that this was the plan. I saw the writing on the wall that the administration was moving to rule Calgarians rather than serve them. It has become a recurring theme where unelected administrators are essentially acting as the proxy for an elected council that seems to have forgotten who they represent. This recently implemented water restriction is just the latest example of a government that prefers controlling your behaviour over fixing its own failures. Let me be clear that I support responsible water use and protecting our rivers. Investing in long-term infrastructure resilience is common sense. But I cannot support a plan that asks residents to permanently change their behaviour before City Hall addresses its own system failures.The numbers don't lie. Right now, Calgary is losing approximately 115 million litres of treated water every single day through leaks in the system, which is roughly 42 billion litres per year. Based on the City’s own residential consumption figures, that is equivalent to the annual water use of more than 260,000 Calgary households. Before you are asked to cut back, the City should be forced to prioritize fixing the aging pipes it already owns. Even their own advisory group admitted that the water system is in a precarious position until critical feeder main upgrades are finished. Yet the focus remains on permanent restrictions for the taxpayer rather than measurable accountability for the bureaucracy.It is particularly frustrating for those who have already done their part. Why should a household with low-flush toilets and water-saving appliances be penalized the same way as everyone else? These homeowners spent their own money to be efficient, and now they are being told that their efforts don't matter because the City needs to impose blanket rules to cover for its own infrastructure neglect. It removes any incentive for future innovation when the reward for being efficient is just more restrictions. This approach ignores the reality of modern home building and shifts the entire burden of conservation onto the individuals who are already leading the way..The disconnect between the Council and the people they serve is staggering. We are seeing surveys from Wards across the city showing overwhelming opposition to this Water Efficiency Plan. In Ward 14 alone, about 88% of respondents opposed the plan, and 90% believe the City needs to fix the leaks before imposing new rules. Even more telling is that 92% felt there was inadequate public engagement before this was brought to a vote. Again, no one elected administrators for the elected council to represent them, and it is very clear from these surveys that a council fresh into its term has already failed its constituents. Calgarians stepped up during the water main crisis because they care about their community, but permanent behavioural restrictions should not come before the City fixes its own mess.My position is simple. Get the basics right first. Fix the leaks and repair the aging infrastructure. Improve accountability and transparency so we actually know where our tax dollars are going. Only then should we evaluate what additional measures are truly necessary. We need to stop normalizing permanent restrictions as a cover for core infrastructure failure. Calgarians deserve a government that listens to them instead of one that ignores the data, and the public will just follow an administrative agenda. We should be rewarding efficiency and fixing pipes, not penalizing homeowners for a problem they didn't create.
