The impact of Calgary\u2019s growing pains was up for discussion in council chambers Wednesday, as city hall tried to find a balance between keeping costs low and embracing the city\u2019s growth. <\/p>\n
A key task for council is getting the city\u2019s infrastructure priorities in alignment, as increased funding is needed to support the construction of a replacement for the Bearspaw South Feeder Main. <\/p>\n
But, a lingering issue remains. <\/p>\n
An independent panel looking into the city\u2019s water issues recommended the city create a municipally-controlled corporation to oversee water. <\/p>\n
That has some eyeing the city\u2019s electrical provider, Enmax. <\/p>\n
\u201cAffordable compared to competitors, good management, there\u2019s a number of reasons why we\u2019d be potentially looking at Emnax, another benefit as well is construction coordination,\u201d said Mayor Jeromy Farkas. <\/p>\n
The idea is currently just that \u2014 an idea. Some councillors say their opinion has yet to be formed, adding that utilities are incredibly complex, and a move to Enmax would be a \u201ctransformational\u201d decision they want to get right. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think my answer to that is I have a lot of learning to do before I can answer that question,\u201d said Ward 8 Coun. Nathaniel Schmidt. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a council discussion we\u2019ve had for quite some time, even previous council, of what to do with this\u2026 I\u2019m supportive of it but a lot more has to be discussed,\u201d added Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean. <\/p>\n
Others say they support the cost-saving measures of utilizing Enmax \u2014 citing governance that\u2019s already in place and branding and design work that wouldn\u2019t need to be done. <\/p>\n
But, they say all options need to stay on the table. <\/p>\n
\u201cPersonally, I don\u2019t think we need to go to a wholly owned subsidiary on a water utility, I think it could be managed internally at a much lower cost,\u201d said Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot. <\/p>\n
Farkas has said council will be implementing all of the panel\u2019s recommendations, so it\u2019s highly-likely that a city-owned corporation would be taking responsibility for water. But, what that will look like remains to be seen. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The impact of Calgary\u2019s growing pains was up for discussion in council chambers Wednesday, as city hall tried…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-531596","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\/531596","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=531596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}