Call for Enmax-style water company gets mixed reviews from Calgary council

Some Calgary city councillors are throwing cold water on the idea that an Enmax-like corporation, owned by the city, should oversee its water system in the future.

An independent panel made the recommendation to council on Wednesday as part of a review of the catastrophic break of Calgary's Bearspaw feeder main in 2024, which led to months of water restrictions.

The report arrived just one week after the pipe suffered a second catastrophic rupture, and as the city said the pipe is highly vulnerable to more failures.

Along with an accelerated timeline to build a new pipe, the panel recommended that Calgary consolidate oversight of its water system into one dedicated department, overseen by a chief operating officer.

The panel also reported that department should, in a few years, become a municipally controlled corporation, similar to Edmonton's utility company EPCOR or Calgary's electrical provider, Enmax.

The panel argued Calgary's system has suffered from a lack of clear accountability, leading to repeatedly delayed inspections and maintenance. It suggested a new corporation would be a separate legal entity, wholly owned by the city, and governed by an independent board of experts.

Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to begin work on implementing the panel's recommendations. And Mayor Jeromy Farkas said on Wednesday to spare no expense to enact all the recommendations, and not to "cherry-pick" among them.

But longtime Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot criticized the idea of a future standalone corporation overseeing water.

“You create a wholly-owned subsidiary, and I guarantee you’re going to have those kind of heavy costs with administration,” Chabot said on The Calgary Eyeopener on Friday.

“To go to the level of creating a wholly owned subsidiary, because of six kilometres out of how many thousands of kilometres of pipe do we have? Yes this is a critical one, absolutely. But I don’t know, I don’t think we should throw the baby out with the bathwater.”

LISTEN | Longtime city councillor responds to report on Calgary's water system:

Chabot, who has been on council since 2004, instead suggested a single water department within the city, with its own general manager.

That would save Calgary money while still providing better oversight, if backed up with an external body offering a second opinion to administration.

Rate hike worries

Ward 2 Coun. Jennifer Wyness said the city is getting ahead of itself by talking about high-level oversight and restructuring, at a time when it needs to focus on accelerating work to repair and twin the Bearspaw main.

She said she's concerned what an Enmax-like approach to water could cost residents, and that Calgarians will likely ask questions about what a new utility corporation would mean for their monthly water bills.

“When I look at the other municipally owned corporation we have, Enmax, every time we disclose the executive compensation, council gets anger from Calgarians about how did we let this happen, how come these guys are compensated so much?” said Wyness.

“They’re already concerned about  their energy prices under Enmax. And so these are the concerns they’re going to be thinking about once the dust settles and we are no longer in this crisis.”

Overhaul for oversight

To other members of council, like Ward 11 Coun. Rob Ward, drastic change is needed to the city's water oversight, and a standalone corporation is worth considering.

“The current governance model is not working and it’s how we got into the situation we’re in now,” said Ward.

“To continue doing things the way that we have for the last 21 years, we’ve seen the result of that.”

WATCH | City council weighing major water system shakeup following panel review:

Running Calgary's water system like Enmax was actually a platform point for Ward 4 Coun. DJ Kelly when he ran in last fall's election.

Kelly said the 2024 Bearspaw feeder main break frequently came up while he was door-knocking on the campaign trail, so improving Calgary's water infrastructure was a top priority for him upon entering office.

“Calgarians are fed up. We want to have stable infrastructure,” said Kelly.

“If we don’t have that, then we can’t trust, we can’t do anything else beyond that.”

On Friday, Kelly said he’s open to other models, like a dedicated department within the city or arm's-length oversight body like the Calgary Police Commission is for the city police department.

But he's adamant that the first step is to bring management of Calgary’s water system under one roof. Which model is chosen should be decided at some point during this current council's four-year term.

“We need a major cultural change within this unit, and the best way to do that is to bring them together under one roof, under one chief operating officer, in order to be able to have end-to-end view of the entire water utility,” said Kelly.

Both Kelly and the independent panel also argued that the new recommendations can be implemented without a hike to residents' water rates.

Trust in expertise

Making Calgary's water system a wholly-owned subsidiary could work but she said no one governance model is best for municipalities, said Monica Emelko, the Canada Research Chair in water science, technology and policy at the University of Waterloo.

Whether a standalone company or internal department is more suitable depends on the municipality, she argues.

Instead, Emelko said the key for a more successful water system is for the city to listen to its experts and ensure necessary maintenance is properly funded.

“The pipe network in the ground that we rely on to get water to our taps, it’s a small marvel of engineering that we have that, and that we can replace things so quickly." said Emelko, who has advised the City of Calgary on multiple projects.

"But it does take time, and we have to be willing to pay for it."