Calgary metropolis councillors are set to get their fingers on an unbiased panel’s evaluate into the 2024 rupture of the Bearspaw feeder fundamental someday Tuesday, however one councillor is already elevating considerations.
Within the months following the unique break alongside the important water line, which ruptured once more final week in a unique location, long-time government and ATCO board member Siegfried W. Kiefer was tapped by an advisory committee to move up the 5 member unbiased evaluate panel.
That panel was tasked with analyzing what led to the Bearspaw feeder fundamental to burst, what preventative measures are wanted, in addition to a deeper take a look at “all facets” of the town’s utility infrastructure together with the water utility methods operations and upkeep, assurance and threat administration, planning, design and engineering, finances and financing, and governance and group accountability.
Based on Calgary’s mayor, the report shall be delivered to metropolis councillors on Tuesday night time, and the panel will current the findings publicly at a metropolis committee assembly on Jan. 13.
“We’re working collectively to get this out to the general public as quickly as humanly doable,” Calgary mayor Jeromy Farkas stated Monday. “We must be as clear as doable with Calgarians about, not simply what’s taking place with the pipe, but in addition the governance of the Metropolis of Calgary.”
Nonetheless, Ward 14 Coun. Landon Johnston has been vocal in his considerations with the report, together with a social media post questioning the panel’s independence.
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“Individuals need solutions on this, and the extra they arrive out with half solutions, the extra questions we’re going to have,” he advised International Information on Monday.
Johnston’s considerations centre round an e mail despatched by Kiefer, the panel’s chair, to metropolis councillors and the mayor on Saturday concerning the timing of the report’s launch.
“Our Panel is totally dedicated to delivering to you – and to all Calgarians – a report that’s correct, full,and reflective of the hundreds of hours of labor invested,” Kiefer stated within the e mail obtained by International Information. “We require just a few further days to finalize the work.”
Kiefer then famous the report shall be handed over on Tuesday as a substitute of Thursday, and supplied his “confidential mobile phone quantity” to councillors if they’ve any questions “concerning the timing of the discharge” of the report.
In a follow-up e mail from Kiefer replying to a priority from Johnston, additionally obtained by International Information, Kiefer stated he would “refuse any dialog past” the timing of the report’s launch.
“I and our complete panel have been, and stay, utterly dedicated to sustaining absolutely the independence of our evaluate work and our report,” the e-mail reads.
When requested concerning the state of affairs Monday, Farkas defended the panel’s independence.
“The panel chair contacted members of council to make it very clear the request for extra time to finish the report was coming from the panel itself and never from metropolis administration,” Farkas stated. “This was actually important to construct belief within the total course of.”
Metropolis administration was supplied a “very incomplete draft” of the report, Farkas stated. Kiefer’s e mail stated this was to finish “due diligence on fact-checking and accuracy.”
In an interview with International Information, Johnston stated he’s involved administration acquired data, regardless of it being for accuracy.
Metropolis of Calgary Infrastructure Providers normal supervisor Michael Thompson stated administration was requested “to offer information,” and that data was despatched to the panel.
“We’re not enhancing the report, it’s not our report, it’s an unbiased panel report,” Thompson stated.
A Metropolis of Calgary report into the feeder fundamental break launched in Nov. 2024 confirmed a number of components are believed to have contributed to the rupture of the pipe together with microcracking of the protecting plaster outer layer, wires breaking resulting from corrosion and hydrogen embrittlement, and excessive chloride ranges within the soil surrounding the pipe.
Kerry Black, a civil engineering professor on the College of Calgary, stated she doesn’t consider the unbiased panel’s report will present a “smoking gun.”
“It’s not one factor that contributes to infrastructure failure, it’s a sequence of occasions and issues unfolding and a number of components which can be in the end the results of a catastrophic failure like we noticed a pair years in the past,” she advised International Information.
It doesn’t matter what the report recommends, Farkas advised reporters metropolis officers will act on the panel’s “unvarnished” opinions.
“The great, the dangerous and the ugly,” Farkas stated. “We are going to act on these suggestions in order that Calgarians can trust of their water system.”
© 2026 International Information, a division of Corus Leisure Inc.
