National Post- Millions down the drain: Water tech company says Calgary’s problems go beyond recent break
According to the city’s website, the average water use in Calgary was approximately 350 litres per person per day in 2023. However, Water Online estimates that 20 to 30 per cent of this water is regularly lost due to leaks and aging infrastructure, as per the national average.
A 2019 National Research Council report found that 30 per cent of Canada’s water and wastewater infrastructure is at or beyond its service life, The Globe and Mail reports.
Pride cometh before… basic necessities.
Good one!
Maintenance looks boring on the spreadsheets and in the media. However … “green”, “zero carbon” new equipment dazzles everyone’s eyes. Complex programs, and rate tiers to PUNISH water use … are super “virtue signals”. Junkets to Hawaii to “learn” about their water systems are more important than maintenance.
Deferred maintenance of everything is, and has been, the norm for many years. Governments abandoned their core responsibilities in favour of shiny, virtuous, and wasteful spending “priorities.”
Nobody gets re-elected spending on things underground. They get their pictures in the paper at groundbreakings for new community centers and sports facilities. I remember a major Liberal infrastructure program in the ’80s where the local MP was photographed turning sod for new bocce ball courts in Toronto. That’s what politicians mean by infrastructure.
With real media oversight, the citizenry would know prior to each election which major public works were to be funded and how, the cities are responsible for local works, like police, fire, water works, garbage collection, road maintenance, snow removal, lawns at public parks, public swimming areas… and not much else. I suspect the water mains under the rapidly decaying streets are all in their last decade. Is that the only way the inner city streets get paved? that is after the city has had an emergency repair of the water works under them? Well at least I’m not “marc in winnipeg” and having to drive on those streets!
The local city unionised workers are threatening to go on strike and they are demanding quite the pay raise, and it may be helpful to know that there really isn’t anyone else to blame for the widespread idiocy apart from various gov’t and the act of splitting the vote amongst small gov’t advocates to allow the leftists to be voted into office. The federal gov’t #Libranos for allowing millions of people into the country without any thought as to where will they live, how will they feed themselves when their qualifications are barely better than pushing a broom.
The local gov’t is entirely idiotic, and we’re going to be paying for this idiocy for the next decade. It’s not only a problem for 2024.
The new C-train line / Greenline is going to be a spectacular spendfest … “the new Greenline can no more have a deficit than a man can have a baby” ? HA!
and Joe Biden? Absolutely fit to be President.
and the covid jab? Absolutely tested to be safe. Give 3 or 5 jabs to all your kids.
and the blanket media coverage of the world’s conflict events? Absolutely send another $ billion to those freedom fighters
and this gas station sushi? Absolutely fresh!
Provincial government should pass legislation that requires cities and town to spend a set percentage of tax revenue on infrastructure. In Canada, cities are firmly under the jurisdiction of the provinces so this should be constitutionally sound.
Somewhere around 90% of collected taxes and transfers should be spent directly on basic infrastructure (water, roads, garbage collection…) and only 10% on vanity projects. While they’re at it, the provinces should set pay scales for municipal employees based on cost of living in the community and maximum staffing levels based on population. City councils and mayors have abandoned their proper roles and are negligent in their duties. Time to set up guidelines for economic and infrastructure responsibilities. The administration class is overgrown and needs pruning.
I’d extend those pay scales to all provincial employees from premier down.
Most public unions have pay ranges already. It’s really just about standardizing them and accounting for the higher cost of living in certain communities. Standard practice. I’d add in benchmarking every 10 years, otherwise it’s difficult to hire and maintain the skilled trades.
“Provincial government should pass legislation that requires…”
Sure. And then immediately a set of companies springs up like mushrooms to take advantage of that requirement, and a new bureaucracy is created to manage it, and before you know it the water main -still- does not get fixed.
Did you know that city water services were all private companies until fairly recently? Hamilton Ontario had one of the first water companies with a massive steam pumping station down by the beach strip. The thing was so well made and so massive that it is still there, and still works.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton_Waterworks
Socialism sucks.
Merely discussing ideas. Not everyone will agree but that’s never stopped me before.
Yup….like condos requiring reserves for such things. There was a time when garbage pickup, etc., was included in property taxes. No more. Hell, my mother told me that way back, the City would even shovel your sidewalks in the winter as part of your tax “services”. Now we even have to pay the City to park within 150 meters of our own bloody home. There is some serious ass kicking that needs to be done. And as for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, they are nothing but grifters singing from the same grifter song book.
That type of service included in taxes wasn’t very long ago. All of a sudden municipal governments decided they needed to spend taxes on flavor-of-the-day social causes and political activism, all at the expense of basic infrastructure and services. If all of the unnecessary spending and bloated administration was reduced, there would be more than enough money for infrastructure projects and maintenance. But cities won’t do this unless they’re required by law. There’s no ribbon cutting ceremony or applause for sewer repairs and snow clearing.
Time for fewer circuses and more aquaducts
Absolutely agree. The only way to stop this mandate creep is at the grass roots. Don’t just complain. Hammer you local councils to stay within their scope and do vanity “green” stuff with grant money only. If they want to virtue signal, they should go to church.
I can only imagine how difficult it is to get your voice heard in a big city. Around here most issues can be solved with a few households phoning the RM office and community business is discussed over a few potluck dinners.
The dork with the hyphenated first name doesn’t care. I have complained about all the garbage that the city pushes and wastes money on and his response is always “whatever”. He knows the brain-dead sheeple will reelect him simply on name recognition alone.
i think the city of ottawa still do shovel the walks , but courtesy of the federal tax payers.
a gift to the bureaucrats
Not a great idea. What if the taxes collected are entirely too much/too little? What if the city finds a way to get it done for a lot less? The perverse incentive here is that the city can just blow money on basic infrastructure and do it badly ie cronies, mafia, waste
Yeah, but it’s not the mayor’s job to keep infrastructure maintained and operating properly. You never ever even think about it until you have a catastrophic event and then ask for federal money and blame climate change.
the head of the department is another women. in Calgary she would have never even have to lean on a shovel to get there.
and pronouns for city workers are , distracted , lazy , un inspired.
Shrug. Doesn’t matter what their political badges are. They all kick the leaky can down the road hoping it collapses on the next whore’s watch.
I live next to a great lake.. Why am I conserving and paying California prices?.. Answer: They want me to use less so the city can expand without expansive water upgrades..
Raises and promotions, all around.. Until the day comes where 3 billion dollars +++ is needed to replace it all..
Raises and promotions, again..
Did I mention that I live next to a great lake.. And I don’t actually buy water.. I just rent it for a few hours..
our calgary mayor, a mussi no less had told us to drink beer instead of water.
zero sense , beer is only borrowed
There is no reason why living to a lake should entitle you to cheaply drink it. Everything has a price. Pay up.