Calgarians may soon be paying more for water as the city faces more than half a billion dollars in urgent infrastructure needs, including major upgrades to the Bearspaw South Feeder Main.<\/p>\n
A new report presented to Calgary\u2019s Executive Committee outlines $609.5 million in required capital spending to keep key water projects on track. <\/p>\n
The largest portion, over $300 million, is earmarked for the feeder main, a project aimed at reinforcing the existing line and building a new parallel pipe to improve system reliability.<\/p>\n
Another $200 million-plus is needed for the North Calgary Water Servicing project.<\/p>\n
Mayor Jeromy Farkas said the scale of investment reflects the seriousness of Calgary\u2019s water challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to fix this,\u201d says Farkas. \u201cIt\u2019s honestly embarrassing for us as a city of almost two million people that we cannot rely on safe drinking water. We need to fix this, and we can\u2019t spare any expense to get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most of the capital spending would be covered through borrowing, with the remainder coming from reserve funds.<\/p>\n
The report also recommends $21.3 million in additional operating spending, funded through reserves. That money would go toward accelerating repair work and hiring more frontline crews to manage the city\u2019s aging water infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Ward 4 Coun. DJ Kelly said the financial pressure reflects the realities of Calgary\u2019s rapid expansion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s costs to growing the way that we have as a city, and every once in a while those costs come home to roost, and this may very well be one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the report does not request a utility rate change for 2026, city administration is warning that monthly residential water bills could rise by up to $17 when council sets rates later this year. The final decision is expected in November.<\/p>\n
Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean noted the strain residents are already feeling.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems lately there\u2019s not a lot of good news for Calgarians for their pocketbook issues,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
The report and its recommendations will be presented at a public hearing on March 17, before a final decision is made.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Calgarians may soon be paying more for water as the city faces more than half a billion dollars…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-513458","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-calgary","10":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}