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Calgary city council has greenlit more than $600 million to help cover ongoing and expedited work to upgrade the city’s water infrastructure.
Council voted unanimously Tuesday in favour of boosting this year’s capital budget by $609.5 million, as well as increasing the city’s borrowing capacity by more than $500 million to help cover the new spending.
Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas called the move an “unfortunate but necessary investment,” as the city is in its second week of water restrictions due to ongoing repairs to the ailing Bearspaw feeder main.
“The price tag is significant, but it’s much less than what you would see in terms of some of the recent investments for the megaprojects even in Calgary’s downtown,” Farkas told reporters.
“I think if Calgarians were to look at our water-essential infrastructure as a megaproject, that’s completely warranted.”
According to city administration, $222 million of the funding increase will be directed to a new 22-km feeder main north from the Bearspaw Water Treatment Plant, which is already under construction, and another $15 million will pay for advanced metering infrastructure.
Another $367.4 million will be allocated to ongoing work on the Bearspaw feeder main.
“This is all about redundancy, this is about actioning the recommendations in the independent panel report, and in dealing with our infrastructure deficit here and now,” Farkas said.
The move brings the total cost associated with the Bearspaw feeder main to $439 million, which includes $381 million to pay for the replacement project.
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That project, which will see a new steel pipe installed parallel to the existing line, was fast-tracked earlier this year and is expected to be complete by December.
“We had to expedite it,” said Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal. “There’s a premium, about 15 to 20 per cent, but administration managed that premium increase. I don’t think we have any other option.”
Another $18 million will be allocated for a “slip line,” which city officials said is a new liner that will be installed in the existing feeder main to help stabilize the pipe.
The majority of the funding would be financed through self-supported debt, and would eventually be paid back through water rates.
Although the move won’t impact water rates in 2026, city officials said the move will result in a 14-per cent rate increase in 2027, or an additional $17 monthly.
“We’re sharing it as well with ratepayers in Airdrie, in Chestermere, in Tsuut’ina (Nation), and Strathmore,” Farkas said. “It allows us to meet the needs that Calgarians and the region are expecting.”
City council also approved an additional $21 million for the water services operations budget, which city administration said would pay for an increase in staff.
Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot questioned the request for additional staff, and how those resources will be used after the feeder main is replaced and the water system is stabilized.
“For me, the concern is once you’ve hired all these people to do all this work from an emergency perspective, what happens after the emergency is over?” asked Chabot. “In my experience at the city is that we rarely hire people only to get rid of them down the road.”
According to Doug Morgan, the city’s general manager of operational services, the additional resources will be directed to leak detection and metering once the major projects are complete.
“There will be no shortage of work as we move out of the high-risk areas and move on to regular operations,” he told council.
Tuesday’s funding increase comes after the previous city council approved more than $1 billion in borrowing for water infrastructure, which was included in this year’s budget by the current city council.
A decision on next year’s water rates will have to wait until budget talks in November.
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