Feeder-main blame game played as Calgary’s water woes move to long-term planning

There's plenty of water in Calgary faucets now, as well as plenty of finger-pointing when it comes to who's responsible for the city's crumbling water mains.

The United Conservative Party (UCP) is attempting to place blame for Calgary’s recent water-main failures on former mayor Naheed Nenshi.

The province has launched a review of Calgary’s water infrastructure and has demanded documents from the city outlining historical issues with the feeder main.

At the same time, a newsletter emailed to UCP members includes a video featuring Chestermere-Strathmore MLA Chantelle de Jonge laying out talking points faulting Nenshi for the failures.

“I’m sure we’ve all heard about the water crisis in Calgary, an eye-opening water-main break,” de Jonge says in the video.

“This water crisis didn’t just happen overnight. It was years in the making. And guess who was in charge? Naheed Nenshi, now leader of Alberta’s NDP.”

De Jonge alleges decisions made during Nenshi’s time as mayor contributed directly to the current problems.

“If Nenshi couldn’t manage the most basic public service for Calgarians, how can Albertans trust him to manage an entire province?” she says.

Nenshi, who served as Calgary’s mayor from 2010 to 2021, said the attacks are politically motivated.

“This is a political attack, and it’s not landing with anybody,” Nenshi said.

“If I wasn’t the leader of the NDP, would they be blaming me for it? And of course, the answer is no. They’re just looking for some cheap political points.”

An independent inquiry into the earlier feeder-main break found city bureaucrats failed to adequately inform council of growing risks over multiple terms spanning more than two decades.

The report did not single out any one mayor or council.

Nenshi said the inquiry cleared elected officials of direct responsibility while pointing to deeper administrative failures.

“I was cleared, as were all politicians, by the independent report. Wasn’t our fault, but that’s not the point,” he said.

“The point is both the city and the province have to take responsibility as leaders to fix the situation and make sure that it never, ever happens again.”

Political scientist Lori Williams said the UCP’s approach reflects Calgary’s importance as a political battleground.

“They know Calgary is a particular vulnerability for them,” Williams said.

“They’re hoping to tap into a source of serious dissatisfaction amongst Calgarians and turn support away from Naheed Nenshi and toward themselves.”

Williams said the blame strategy may have limited effect.

“My guess is that most Calgarians are going to focus on solving the problem rather than finding who to blame,” she said.

Mayor Jeromy Farkas rejected attempts to assign fault to past councils and said responsibility rests with current leadership.

“I’m not interested in playing the blame game,” Farkas said.

“If you’re looking for somebody to blame for the water-main break, you can blame me as the mayor of Calgary. The buck stops with me.”

Farkas said the city is moving ahead with repairs and a long-term replacement of the damaged feeder main.

“We will fix this, and we will ensure that Calgarians can rely on safe and clean drinking water,” he said.

“Not just next week, next year. We’re going to implement a generational fix that solves this problem once and for all.”