Juno News - Calgarians turn to pandemic-era snitch lines

00:00:00.000 If you thought that Pandemic Eric snitching hotlines had been done away with, along with

00:00:04.380 masks and a virus that apparently has no symptoms, you'd be wrong. The city of Calgary is now warning

00:00:10.620 residents that they will be required to conserve water for three to five weeks. As it turns out

00:00:15.920 that a major water feed main that requires repairs also needs to be fixed in five other locations.

00:00:21.820 Now, I hate to say I told you so, but if you heeded my warnings from last week's episode,

00:00:25.920 basically, I told you so. And if you thought that this crapshoot couldn't get any worse,

00:00:30.440 you'd be wrong. Petty tyrants are coming out of the woodwork in Calgary, with thousands of 0.98

00:00:36.340 Calgarians reporting their neighbor for not doing an adequate job of conserving water. More than

00:00:41.620 2,000 Calgarians have now called city bylaw to complain about their neighbor's inadequate water

00:00:47.240 conservation efforts. And this week, city officials announced that they were moving past the education

00:00:52.000 portion and telling officers to begin ticketing with fines beginning at $3,000. This is Canada

00:00:58.320 in 2024. If you're found guilty of not being sufficiently stronger together, or whatever

00:01:03.040 the latest saying is, then you'll have to pay through the nose. Or in the case of pastors

00:01:07.640 in COVID-19, you'll be put in jail. But the politicians and government officials that screw

00:01:12.780 up time and time again, their worst case scenario is not being reelected, and instead receiving

00:01:18.060 a cushy six-figure consulting job with a hefty expense account. It really is one rule for thee,

00:01:24.660 and another rule for me. And the sooner we all realize that, the sooner we can start doing

00:01:29.180 something about it. I'm Rachel Emanuel, and this is the Alberta Roundup.

00:01:43.400 Okay everyone, let's start by getting caught up on the situation currently unfolding in Calgary.

00:01:48.060 The major water feed main that burst now two weeks ago has been repaired. But the city is now saying

00:01:53.700 that it's going to take three to five weeks until residents can stop with their water conservation

00:01:57.980 efforts, because they've now identified five more areas of that huge pipe that need to be fixed.

00:02:03.720 Now, like I said before, I hate to say I told you so, but I pretty much called this last week

00:02:07.580 when I pointed out that Calgary Mayor Jody Gonnick hadn't exactly been the most forthcoming.

00:02:12.760 When she was asked whether she was sure this water breach was just a one-off,

00:02:16.560 she declined to say. And also that it seems Calgary's water infrastructure is really just

00:02:20.860 falling apart all across the city. Take a listen to what I said last week.

00:02:24.660 So just to sum up, there's been a break in a major water feed that officials still don't know when

00:02:29.080 is going to be fixed. While that was happening in the city of Bowness, there was also another break

00:02:34.920 in a water main in the city of Bowness, a smaller one unrelated to the first incident,

00:02:38.780 as if that's supposed to reassure us somehow that things are running very smoothly over at the city of

00:02:43.500 Calgary. Then an access point to the major water feed also needed to be fixed so that officials

00:02:49.620 could get down and fix this issue in the first place. And while all of this is going on, the

00:02:54.320 mayor of Calgary is not able to come out and say that this incident was a one-off. Instead,

00:02:59.400 she tries to reassure us by saying that regular maintenance was being done on this. If regular

00:03:04.460 maintenance was being done on this, how did this incident happen in the first place? You think this

00:03:07.980 is something officials would have been able to catch before it turned into the massive citywide crisis that is

00:03:12.740 happening right now? Just hours after that episode was released, the city announced that it was going

00:03:17.900 to need to repair that major water feed main in five additional areas. The city's estimate of time it

00:03:24.400 would take to complete the repairs went from one week to three to five weeks. That's three to five

00:03:29.420 weeks of not watering outdoors, not filling your hot tub or pool, not washing your vehicle, and not

00:03:34.740 running a sprinkler for your kids to play in this summer. The city is referring to those five sites as

00:03:39.620 hot spots. Here's Calgary CAO David Duckworth explaining what that means in a briefing on

00:03:44.720 Tuesday. Take a listen. I'd like to provide a little bit more clarity around what are hot spots.

00:03:51.060 So hot spots are additional locations requiring repair that we found in subsequent analysis of the

00:03:56.820 pipe in the areas beyond the spot of the initial break. These hot spots are not leaks, but rather they

00:04:04.560 are identified structural deficiencies that require immediate repair. There are no indications of leaks

00:04:11.100 at this point, but that may change as we uncover and assess the pipe at each of these five hot spot

00:04:17.220 locations. We want to get ahead of and avoid a similar failure to the one that we've currently or just

00:04:25.160 recently experienced. You have to laugh a little bit at it's common at the end there about working to get

00:04:29.880 ahead of future repairs. Like I think we're well past that. I think we're well past that. I think if

00:04:34.780 you had been working ahead to get ahead of future repairs, we wouldn't be in the situation right now

00:04:38.920 where Calgarians are being asked not to use water outside for five weeks. And those that are using

00:04:44.520 water outside are going to be fined $3,000 and have their neighbor snitch on them. I think we're well past

00:04:49.400 that. You know, if I was being generous, I would say his comments were a little ironic. And if I wasn't in a

00:04:54.140 generous mood, which I'm not really, I would say he's pretty much gaslighting us. You obviously haven't got ahead of

00:04:59.560 the situation, which is why now this summer Calgarians are not going to be able to use

00:05:04.500 water outside. A friendly reminder here that Calgary Mayor Jody Gondek has said that regular

00:05:08.700 maintenance was being done on this pipe. Regular maintenance that was so successful that Calgarians

00:05:12.480 are being asked not to use water outside during the hottest part of the summer. Make of that what

00:05:16.740 you will. But for those wondering why the repairs are going to take so long, here's Mayor Gondek explaining

00:05:21.580 in an update on Wednesday morning. Take a listen.

00:05:23.900 Many thanks to the city crews and private contractors who work 24-7 to get this work

00:05:30.360 done. And this brings us to the five hot spots that were identified, the places that need repair

00:05:36.480 before we can turn on the tap at the Bear Spot Treatment Facility and run water through the

00:05:41.280 feeder main again. Those five spots of repair are currently underway. Yesterday, we watched as

00:05:47.900 crews were tearing up 16th Avenue in Montgomery to get at that two-meter-wide feeder main.

00:05:54.540 As some of you likely know, we are getting most of the pieces of pipe that's required from San

00:05:58.040 Francisco. This has been a big controversy brewing online with many people saying that this pipe was

00:06:02.540 available to get in Canada. The mayor also addressed that controversy in her Wednesday briefing saying

00:06:08.380 that San Francisco was the only place that had it readily available. They could have had that pipe

00:06:12.580 made in Canada from a local source, but it simply would have taken too long, which is why we're getting

00:06:17.480 the pipe from San Francisco. She also announced that she has asked a third party to review the situation

00:06:22.940 to see why the pipe burst because, of course, we still don't know why this crisis happened in the

00:06:26.960 first place. Let's go back to CAO David Duckworth explaining how this review will play out.

00:06:32.080 The framework for the full third party review has already been established and the scope of this

00:06:37.900 review will include but not be limited to understanding the factors that contributed to the original

00:06:44.380 pipe failure, understanding of our current practices for inspection and asset sustainability and it will

00:06:51.420 include recommendations for specific actions to improve water supply resilience moving forward.

00:06:57.420 The review will be guided by an expert panel from academia, the water industry, water utilities

00:07:03.900 management and engineering, and government entities focused on infrastructure and resilience.

00:07:09.420 Honestly, this might give some of you hope and I'm glad if it does, but as soon as he said

00:07:14.620 academia, he lost me. Anytime the government appoints these review panels, it's basically a lot of people

00:07:19.640 get together and sit around in a room, usually at the taxpayer expense for many weeks or many months,

00:07:24.400 months. And you know, maybe we see that report in half a year or even a few years time and there's

00:07:29.120 some general recommendations about things that could be done, but these rarely have any teeth to

00:07:33.180 them and rarely are people who are responsible for this held to any sort of account. So, and as he said,

00:07:38.940 there's going to be a host of academics on the panel. I mean, these are the people who told us that

00:07:42.940 we had to stay home and isolate if we were sick with COVID, even though we might not have any symptoms.

00:07:47.420 So, the report doesn't instill any confidence in me. While this goes on, stage four restrictions for

00:07:53.200 Calgarians, you can't wash outdoor surfaces such as buildings, sidewalks, and driveways.

00:07:57.580 They're also barring you from filling fountains outside or other decorative water features,

00:08:02.120 washing cars, as I said, and also for using water for construction purposes like dust control. Now,

00:08:07.520 as I said in my introduction, the city announced this week that it would no longer be prioritizing

00:08:11.960 an education first approach for people who are found to have been breaching those stage four

00:08:16.860 water restrictions, that it was actually going to move into ticketing. Here's Kobe Durr,

00:08:21.180 Deputy Chief of Calgary Emergency Management, explaining the city's new approach at a briefing

00:08:26.020 this week. Take a listen.

00:08:27.140 The City of Calgary Community Peace Officers have responded to more than 2,000 complaints

00:08:32.140 for individuals or businesses not adhering to stage four water restrictions.

00:08:37.560 The overwhelming majority have been resolved through education and warnings. Two tickets have

00:08:45.040 been issued. However, moving forward, unless there are mitigating circumstances, the direction to our

00:08:51.300 peace officers is to proceed with ticketing if there is evidence of an offence for someone

00:08:56.480 contributing the water restrictions. I'll remind folks that the specific penalty is $3,000 for an

00:09:04.100 offence under the Water Utility Bylaw, which speaks to the seriousness of this situation.

00:09:09.440 I have to say the thing that bothers me most about this snitching hotline business is that I would

00:09:15.080 guarantee you that in 99.9% of the cases, the individual who called the bio officers to complain

00:09:21.660 about their neighbor didn't approach their neighbor to talk to them first to say, hey, are you aware of

00:09:26.620 these water restrictions? Just curious as to why you're watering outside. And I mean, there's also the

00:09:32.240 whole mind your own business aspect of things, but that's probably the thing that bothers me most is

00:09:35.740 people are so quick to turn to the government to solve all their solutions. And of course, as we

00:09:41.060 know, the government only ends up causing more problems. So you thought that those pandemic era

00:09:46.020 snitching hotline days were over and they are not. People are all too eager to return to them.

00:09:50.880 Okay, everyone, let's take a look at the weekly comment roundup. There were so many great comments

00:09:54.940 under last week's episode. I did get to some of them on Saturday, but I wanted to take a look at a few

00:09:58.880 more because I really appreciated just your thoughtfulness and also you guys, you know, your sense of humor

00:10:03.160 amid this crisis. User at GB Jarvy said, good video. I'm a native Calgarian and I have always

00:10:09.580 been concerned about some aspects of the city. One thing that has bothered me for years is the apathy

00:10:14.200 of the population. Another thing is the sheer naivety of the conservatives specifically, but the

00:10:19.660 people in the city generally. It's this apathy that allows these clowns to continue to be elected. 0.99

00:10:24.900 Gondek and most of the council are clearly idiots and everyone seems shocked and are complaining, 1.00

00:10:29.440 but it remains to be seen if people will bother to vote them out. 1.00

00:10:31.920 So Calgarians need to complain more, then bother to vote and stop splitting the conservative side

00:10:36.920 of the vote too. I feel like this is one of my friends like in Calgary that like is just an

00:10:41.180 anonymous username because I've had this exact conversation with so many people that I know

00:10:44.960 in Calgary. You're 100% correct. I agree with everything that you said. Your apathy is a huge

00:10:48.860 problem for sure in Calgary and just all over Canada right now. But I mean, if we're looking

00:10:52.820 at Calgary specific, even think of the recall Jodi Gondek effort that was unsuccessful. We knew it was

00:10:57.680 going to be unsuccessful because the petitioner Landon Johnston came on the show and said that

00:11:01.260 it would be impossible for him to get enough signatures because there's such a large portion

00:11:06.100 of Calgary that doesn't speak English and were kind of unreachable when they were going about that.

00:11:11.520 But the petition still didn't garner that many signatures. There's a lot of people who complain

00:11:15.980 about Jodi Gondek and then in the end can't be bothered to go find somewhere to sign the petition

00:11:21.000 or to be volunteered to help collect signatures. So yes, apathy is a huge problem that we're facing

00:11:25.680 Canada right now. And that's really why our country looks the way that it does. A hundred

00:11:30.120 percent. User at fans are said, after I saw the country Hills golf course watering their entire

00:11:35.100 course this morning, my own water saving measures evaporated. I have no idea whether there's any

00:11:39.600 truth to this. I didn't mean to throw this golf course under the bus, but I just thought this was

00:11:44.340 funny. Pretty much how I would be. Oh, this is important. Oh wait, other people aren't doing it.

00:11:47.580 Yeah, I guess it's not. It's not really that important after all. But you know, I think this is

00:11:52.040 something that the city of Calgary is going to really run into problems with as the three to

00:11:55.280 five weeks continues. It's as there's still enough water every day, people are going to,

00:11:59.620 I think, find the water restrictions less and less serious and be less inclined to follow them,

00:12:04.600 especially because we're still going ahead with the Calgary Stampede. And obviously we're going to

00:12:08.240 have a host of tourists here. They're going to be staying in hotels. They're going to be using water.

00:12:11.420 It's going to be getting hotter. People are going to want to be outside playing with their kids.

00:12:14.940 So I don't know. I have a feeling the city is going to really struggle to keep a hold on these

00:12:18.900 restrictions. But of course, that's why they're relying on you, ratting out your neighbor to

00:12:22.660 their snitch hotline. Okay, everyone, that's all we have time for today. If you want to support my

00:12:26.620 work, you can do that over at donate.tnc.news. Don't forget to like this video and subscribe to

00:12:31.460 the True North YouTube page so you don't miss any of my content. I'm also on other shows. I don't just

00:12:36.100 do the Alberta Roundup anymore. I hope that you guys have a great rest of your week. For those of

00:12:39.980 you in Calgary, I hope that you stay hydrated and clean. God bless. See you guys on Saturday.

00:12:48.900 Bye.

Juno News - June 19, 2024

Calgarians turn to pandemic-era snitch lines

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