Alberta’s provincial authorities has introduced it should undertake its personal evaluation of Calgary’s water system.
In a social media put up Wednesday afternoon, Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Dan Williams shared a letter he despatched to Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas informing him of the provincial evaluation.
The letter comes as metropolis officers progressively deliver the Bearspaw feeder predominant again into service after a vital failure of the road on Dec. 30, 2025 — the road’s second break in lower than two years.
“I perceive repairs are ongoing and the town goals to revive water service as quickly as potential,” Williams wrote in his letter. “Nonetheless, I’m involved about implications for the capability of municipal companies and the boldness that Calgarians might have within the metropolis’s means to maintain this important service.”
Williams wrote that he acknowledges that the Metropolis of Calgary has taken a number of “commendable steps” to evaluation the circumstances main as much as the feeder predominant’s authentic break in June 2024, together with an investigation into the pipe, a observe evaluation from the Affiliation of Skilled Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA) and a evaluation by an unbiased panel.
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That report, launched final week, discovered that systemic gaps deep-rooted over 20 years in how Calgary’s water infrastructure is deliberate, managed and overseen finally contributed to the pipe’s failure.
Williams stated he believes residents of Calgary and surrounding communities who depend on the town for water companies have “legitimate issues” that the Bearspaw south feeder predominant might rupture once more.
Metropolis officers stated as just lately as Wednesday that they can not assure that the pipe is not going to break once more.
Williams is utilizing powers underneath the Municipal Authorities Act to direct metropolis administration to offer him with “any and all documentation” associated to normal water predominant asset administration practices that might impression the feeder predominant, in addition to all related supplies relationship again to the McKnight feeder predominant break in 2004.
He stated that features all the knowledge offered to the unbiased panel, council and committee information, together with assembly minutes and agendas, media reviews of council selections, infrastructure reviews, metropolis insurance policies and funds paperwork, amongst a number of different forms of supplies.
“If for any motive, any of this documentation just isn’t out there, I request that the town present me with a proof as to why,” Williams wrote.
He’s requesting that the town hand over all of the requested documentation by Jan. 27.
Throughout a metropolis press convention on the feeder predominant Wednesday, Farkas thanked Premier Danielle Smith, Williams and different ministers, who he stated he’s been in “fixed contact” with for the reason that pipe burst two weeks in the past.
Farkas stated he just lately met with Williams and that he expressed the town’s willingness, on a “voluntary foundation,” to offer “any and all documentation.”
“From a normal transparency standpoint, it makes numerous sense to me to offer as a lot documentation as potential to the general public,” Farkas instructed reporters. “We have to present the assurances that we now have checked out each single chance, each single contingency.”
Farkas stated the discharge of data to the province might be “actually instrumental to constructing public confidence” within the metropolis’s short-term and long-term response to points with the water system.
In his response to Williams, posted on social media late Wednesday, Farkas stated he’ll work with metropolis administration to co-ordinate the gathering of supplies and to offer a “structured submission” that aligns with what the minister is requesting.
Within the days following the latest rupture of the feeder predominant, Alberta’s premier advised the province would look into whether or not extra oversight is required for the town’s water system.
On social media Wednesday, Smith stated she appreciated Williams for launching a “full, clear evaluation of Calgary’s water predominant failures so we will get solutions, repair any gaps, and assist councils make higher long run selections for the folks they serve.”
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