Councillors shoot down proposed approach to third-party review panel

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The independent, post-incident review of last month’s rupture of Calgary’s most critical water main will take at least a year, according to city officials.

And on Wednesday, Calgary city councillors voted down a staff recommendation regarding the appointment process for the third-party panel that will undertake that review, directing administration to return with a new set of options on July 30.

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At the infrastructure and planning committee meeting, city CEO David Duckworth outlined a set of proposed objectives, as well as the suggested scope and timeline for the investigation into what caused the Bearspaw south feeder main to burst on June 5.

The water main’s failure plunged Calgary into nearly a month of Stage 4 water restrictions and a citywide fire ban that remains in effect, despite the recent partial restoration of the critical water pipeline that services 1.2 million customers.

Duckworth told committee members the first step of the post-incident process would be to appoint a selection committee of five members from the private sector, who would then appoint a review panel chair. The chair would then fill out the rest of the panel with up to a maximum of 12 members, comprising water utility experts, representatives from private industry, professional associations, academia and other government entities.

“The intention around this is to ensure the review will be conducted without any bias or conflict of interest,” he said.

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However, committee members disagreed with Duckworth’s recommendation and, after an hour of procedural wrangling, voted to refer the item so that administration will return on July 30 with a new report that includes the option of hiring a third-party recruitment firm to appoint the panel members.

The committee also voted to file and abandon Duckworth’s original recommendation to hand-pick a five-member committee to recruit the panel chair.

“We have the challenge of transparency and openness with Calgarians, and we start out looking like we’re hand-picking the start of the panel,” said Ward 2 Coun. Jennifer Wyness.

“If we really want an unbiased opinion, we should be looking across Canada to really evaluate our processes.”

Original timeline was too ‘aggressive,’ says Duckworth

While administration originally intended for a timeline of five months to accommodate council’s November budget deliberations, Duckworth told the committee Wednesday the review will likely take a year or longer, with results presented to council toward the end of 2025.

The panel’s findings would not only determine what caused the feeder main to rupture, but also take a deeper dive into assessing the viability of Calgary’s water distribution network.

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“Our timelines were a little aggressive,” Duckworth told reporters. “In speaking to people in the industry who have done this work before, they’ve expressed to me that this is probably a minimum of 12 months (work). Four to five months is extremely aggressive.”

Committee members shrugged off the extended timeline to reporters afterward, stating that it’s more important to get the process right than to rush the work.

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“If it takes a year, it takes a year,” committee chair Sonya Sharp said. “We need to get the right answers.”

Wyness agreed, stating that a thorough evaluation will take time.

“I get it — Calgarians are frustrated and they want this instantly,” she said. “But they have to ask themselves, do they want it done right or do they want it slapped together? It takes time to dig through data, it takes time to find reports and it takes time to evaluate what the city’s processes have to be.”

While the review will be independent of council and administration, Duckworth said the panel’s work will be funded through the city’s water utility reserve, which he noted amounted to a little over $40 million as of the end of 2023.

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Panel members would likely be compensated for their participation, according to Duckworth, though he couldn’t confirm how much they would be paid or what the ballpark budget for the review would be.

“It will really depend on the scope of the review and what resources the panel will actually need. And we don’t have that information now,” he said.

Calgary’s water network in ‘post-op’: Gondek

Meanwhile, city officials said outdoor water restrictions will be lifted in stages as the stabilization process continues for the Bearspaw south feeder main, which is currently operating at 50 per cent capacity and reduced pressurization.

Mayor Jyoti Gondek compared the situation to surgery, stating that Calgary’s water system is currently in “post-op” and that it’s important to gradually ease back into full water habits.

“We’re in recovery mode and we need to monitor how well our patient is doing,” she said. “With what we’ve seen throughout the last month, the last thing we want to do is put the feeder main or the system at risk again.”

She noted that cumulative water consumption totalled 478 million litres on Tuesday.

Director of capital priorities and investment Francois Bouchart said the city reached a major milestone by lifting voluntary indoor restrictions on Tuesday, but that water conservation remains important during the system’s stabilization.

“Before we begin to gradually introduce some outdoor water use, we need to make sure we can increase the flow and pressure in the system to meet increased demand, and that the infrastructure is responding well,” he said.

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