The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - 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

00:00:04.400 masks and a virus that apparently has no symptoms, you'd be wrong. The city of Calgary is now warning

00:00:10.640 residents that they will be required to conserve water for three to five weeks. As it turns out

00:00:15.960 that a major water feed main that requires repairs also needs to be fixed in five other locations.

00:00:21.840 Now, I hate to say I told you so, but if you heeded my warnings from last week's episode,

00:00:25.940 basically, I told you so. And if you thought that this crapshoot couldn't get any worse,

00:00:30.460 you'd be wrong. Petty tyrants are coming out of the woodwork in Calgary, with thousands of 0.98

00:00:36.380 Calgarians reporting their neighbor for not doing an adequate job of conserving water. More than

00:00:41.660 2,000 Calgarians have now called city bylaw to complain about their neighbor's inadequate water

00:00:47.260 conservation efforts. And this week, city officials announced that they were moving past the education

00:00:52.040 portion and telling officers to begin ticketing with fines beginning at $3,000. This is Canada

00:00:58.360 in 2024. If you're found guilty of not being sufficiently stronger together, or whatever

00:01:03.060 the latest saying is, then you'll have to pay through the nose. Or in the case of pastors

00:01:07.660 in COVID-19, you'll be put in jail. But the politicians and government officials that screw

00:01:12.820 up time and time again, their worst case scenario is not being re-elected, and instead receiving

00:01:18.080 a cushy six-figure consulting job with a hefty expense account. It really is one rule for

00:01:24.340 thee, and another rule for me. And the sooner we all realize that, the sooner we can start

00:01:28.960 doing something about it. I'm Rachel Emanuel, and this is the Alberta Roundup.

00:01:32.420 Okay everyone, let's start by getting caught up on the situation currently unfolding in Calgary.

00:01:48.120 The major water feed main that burst now two weeks ago has been repaired. But the city is now saying

00:01:53.740 that it's going to take three to five weeks until residents can stop with their water conservation

00:01:57.940 efforts, because they've now identified five more areas of that huge pipe that need to be fixed.

00:02:03.760 Now, like I said before, I hate to say I told you so, but I pretty much called this last week

00:02:07.600 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, she declined to say.

00:02:17.920 And also that it seems Calgary's water infrastructure is really just falling apart all across the city.

00:02:22.920 Take a listen to what I said last week.

00:02:24.420 So just to sum up, there's been a break in a major water feed that officials still don't know when

00:02:29.120 is going to be fixed. While that was happening in the city of Bowness, there was also another break

00:02:34.940 in a water main in the city of Bowness, a smaller one unrelated to the first incident, as if that's

00:02:39.340 supposed to reassure us somehow that things are running very smoothly over at the city of Calgary.

00:02:44.240 Then an access point to the major water feed also needed to be fixed so that officials could get

00:02:50.040 down and fix this issue in the first place. And while all of this is going on,

00:02:53.900 the mayor of Calgary is not able to come out and say that this incident was a one-off.

00:02:58.900 Instead, she tries to reassure us by saying that regular maintenance was being done on this.

00:03:03.880 If regular maintenance was being done on this, how did this incident happen in the first place?

00:03:07.420 You think this is something officials would have been able to catch before it turned into the massive

00:03:11.600 citywide crisis that is happening right now.

00:03:13.780 Just hours after that episode was released, the city announced that it was going to need to repair

00:03:18.920 that major water feed main in five additional areas. The city's estimate of time it would take

00:03:24.720 to complete the repairs went from one week to three to five weeks. That's three to five weeks of not

00:03:30.060 watering outdoors, not feeling your hot tub or pool, not washing your vehicle, and not running a sprinkler

00:03:35.660 for your kids to play in this summer. The city is referring to those five sites as hotspots.

00:03:40.920 Here's Calgary CAO David Duckworth explaining what that means in a briefing on Tuesday. Take a listen.

00:03:45.720 I'd like to provide a little bit more clarity around what are hotspots.

00:03:51.240 So hotspots are additional locations requiring repair that we found in subsequent analysis of the

00:03:56.860 pipe in the areas beyond the spot of the initial break.

00:04:01.000 These hotspots are not leaks, but rather they are identified structural deficiencies that require

00:04:07.140 immediate repair. There are no indications of leaks at this point, but that may change as we uncover

00:04:14.240 and assess the pipe at each of these five hotspot locations. We want to get ahead of and avoid

00:04:21.540 a similar failure to the one that we've currently or just recently experienced.

00:04:26.580 You have to laugh a little bit at his comment at the end there about working to get ahead of future

00:04:30.460 repairs. Like, I think we're well past that. I think we're well past that. I think if you had been

00:04:35.280 working ahead to get ahead of future repairs, we wouldn't be in the situation right now where

00:04:39.380 Calgarians are being asked not to use water outside for five weeks. And those that are using

00:04:44.540 water outside are going to be fined $3,000 and have their neighbors snitch on them. I think we're

00:04:48.940 well past that. You know, if I was being generous, I would say his comments were a little ironic.

00:04:53.360 And if I wasn't in a generous mood, which I'm not really, I would say he's pretty much gaslighting

00:04:57.860 us. You obviously haven't got ahead of the situation, which is why now this summer Calgarians are not going

00:05:04.000 to be able to use water outside. A friendly reminder here that Calgary Mayor Jody Gondek has

00:05:07.920 said that regular maintenance was being done on this pipe. Regular maintenance that was so successful

00:05:11.840 that Calgarians are being asked not to use water outside during the hottest part of the summer.

00:05:16.220 Make of that what you will. But for those wondering why the repairs are going to take so long,

00:05:20.100 here's Mayor Gondek explaining in an update on Wednesday morning. Take a listen.

00:05:23.940 Many thanks to the city crews and private contractors who work 24-7 to get this work done. And this brings us

00:05:31.980 to the five hot spots that were identified, the places that need repair before we can turn on the

00:05:37.900 tap at the Bearspot treatment facility and run water through the feeder main again. Those five spots of

00:05:43.740 repair are currently underway. Yesterday, we watched as crews were tearing up 16th Avenue in Montgomery to

00:05:51.700 get at that two metre wide feeder main. As some of you likely know, we are getting most of the pieces

00:05:56.760 of pipe that's required from San Francisco. This has been a big controversy brewing online with many

00:06:01.180 people saying that this pipe was available to get in Canada. The mayor also addressed that controversy

00:06:06.180 in her Wednesday briefing, saying that San Francisco was the only place that had it readily available.

00:06:11.640 They could have had that pipe made in Canada from a local source, but it simply would have taken too long,

00:06:16.740 which is why we're getting the pipe from San Francisco. She also announced that she has asked a third party

00:06:21.400 to review the situation to see why the pipe burst, because of course, we still don't know

00:06:25.480 why this crisis happened in the first place. Let's go back to CAO David Duckworth explaining

00:06:30.440 how this review will play out. The framework for the full third party review has already been

00:06:35.900 established, and the scope of this review will include, but not be limited to, understanding the

00:06:42.440 factors that contributed to the original pipe failure, understanding of our current practices for

00:06:48.000 inspection and asset sustainability, and it will include recommendations for specific actions to

00:06:54.080 improve water supply resilience moving forward. The review will be guided by an expert panel from

00:07:00.860 academia, the water industry, water utilities management and engineering, and government entities

00:07:06.720 focused on infrastructure and resilience. Honestly, this might give some of you hope, and I'm glad if it

00:07:13.080 does, but as soon as he said academia, he lost me. Anytime the government appoints these review panels,

00:07:18.560 it's basically a lot of people get together and sit around in a room, usually at the taxpayer expense

00:07:22.960 for many weeks or many months, and you know, maybe we see that report in half a year or even a few years

00:07:28.560 time, and there's some general recommendations about things that could be done, but these rarely have any

00:07:32.800 teeth to 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

00:07:42.820 that we had to stay home and isolate if we were sick with COVID, even though we might not have any

00:07:46.820 symptoms. So, the report, it doesn't instill any confidence in me. While this goes on, stage four

00:07:52.740 restrictions for Calgarians, you can't wash outdoor surfaces such as buildings, sidewalks, and driveways.

00:07:57.560 They're also barring you from filling fountains outside or other decorative water features,

00:08:02.140 washing cars, as I said, and also for using water for construction purposes, like dust control. Now, as I said in my

00:08:08.020 introduction, the city announced this week that it would no longer be prioritizing an education-first

00:08:13.280 approach for people who are found to have been breaching those stage four water restrictions,

00:08:17.860 that it was actually going to move into ticketing. Here's Kobe Durr, Deputy Chief of Calgary Emergency

00:08:22.820 Management, explaining the city's new approach at a briefing this week. Take a listen.

00:08:27.180 The City of Calgary Community Peace Officers have responded to more than 2,000 complaints for

00:08:32.740 individuals or businesses not adhering to stage four water restrictions. The overwhelming majority

00:08:39.480 have been resolved through education and warnings. Two tickets have been issued. However, moving forward,

00:08:47.920 unless there are mitigating circumstances, the direction to our peace officers is to proceed

00:08:53.300 with ticketing if there is evidence of an offence for someone contributing the water

00:08:57.880 restrictions. I'll remind folks that the specific penalty is $3,000 for an offence under the water

00:09:05.400 utility bylaw, which speaks to the seriousness of this situation. I have to say the thing that

00:09:11.100 bothers me most about this snitching hotline business is that I would guarantee you that in

00:09:15.820 99.9% of the cases, the individual who called the bylaw officers to complain about their neighbour

00:09:22.260 didn't approach their neighbour to talk to them first to say, hey, are you aware of these water

00:09:27.020 restrictions? Just curious as to why you're watering outside. I mean, there's also the whole mind your

00:09:32.840 own business aspect of things, but that's probably the thing that bothers me most is people are so

00:09:36.500 quick to turn to the government to solve all their solutions. And of course, as we know, the government

00:09:41.700 only ends up causing more problems. So you thought that those pandemic era snitching hotline days were

00:09:47.040 over and they are not. People are all too eager to return to them. Okay, everyone, let's take a look at

00:09:52.260 the weekly comment roundup. There were so many great comments under last week's episode. I did get to

00:09:56.560 some of them on Saturday, but I wanted to take a look at a few more because I really appreciated

00:09:59.920 just your thoughtfulness and also you guys, you know, your sense of humour amid this crisis.

00:10:05.140 User at GB Jarvie said, good video. I'm a native Calgarian and I have always been concerned about

00:10:10.360 some aspects of the city. One thing that has bothered me for years is the apathy of the population.

00:10:15.760 Another thing is the sheer naivety of the Conservatives specifically, but the people in the city

00:10:20.340 generally. It's this apathy that allows these clowns to continue to be elected. Gondek and most of the

00:10:25.900 council are clearly idiots and everyone seems shocked and are complaining, but it remains to

00:10:30.200 be seen if people will bother to vote them out. Calgarians need to complain more, then bother to

00:10:34.800 vote and stop splitting the Conservative side of the vote too. I feel like this is one of my friends

00:10:39.140 like in Calgary that like is just an anonymous username because I've had this exact conversation

00:10:43.340 with so many people that I know in Calgary. You're 100% correct. I agree with everything that

00:10:47.780 you said. Your apathy is a huge problem for sure in Calgary and just all over Canada right now,

00:10:52.160 what I mean? If we're looking at Calgary specific, even think of the recall Jody Gondek effort.

00:10:55.880 That was unsuccessful. We knew it was going to be unsuccessful because the petitioner Landon

00:10:59.700 Johnston came on the show and said that it would be impossible for him to get enough signatures

00:11:03.920 because there's such a large portion of Calgary that doesn't speak English and were kind of

00:11:08.440 unreachable when they were going about that. But the petition still didn't garner that many

00:11:14.600 signatures. There's a lot of people who complain about Jody Gondek and then in the end can't be

00:11:19.240 bothered to go find somewhere to sign the petition or to volunteer to help collect signatures.

00:11:23.960 So yes, apathy is a huge problem that we're facing Canada right now and that's really why our country

00:11:28.060 looks the way that it does. 100%. User at Fanzer said, after I saw the Country Hills golf course

00:11:34.380 watering their entire course this morning, my own water saving measures evaporated. I have no idea

00:11:38.980 whether there's any truth to this. I didn't mean to throw this golf course under the bus, but I just

00:11:43.960 thought this was funny. Pretty much how I would be. Oh, this is important. Oh wait, other people aren't

00:11:47.180 doing it. Yeah. I guess it's not, it's not really that important after all, but you know, I think

00:11:51.760 this is something that the city of Calgary is going to really run into problems with as the three to

00:11:55.320 five weeks continues. It's as there's still enough water every day, people are going to, I think,

00:12:00.040 find the water restrictions less and less serious and be less inclined to follow them, especially

00:12:04.920 because we're still going ahead with the Calgary Stampede. And obviously we're going to have a host of

00:12:08.840 tourists here. They're going to be staying in hotels. They're going to be using water. It's going to be

00:12:11.840 getting hotter. People are going to want to be outside playing with their kids. So I don't know.

00:12:15.720 I have a feeling the city is going to really struggle to keep a hold on these restrictions,

00:12:19.400 but of course that's why they're relying on you, ratting out your neighbor to their snitch hotline.

00:12:23.900 Okay, everyone, that's all we have time for today. If you want to support my work,

00:12:26.860 you can do that over at donate.tnc.news. Don't forget to like this video and subscribe to the

00:12:31.620 True North YouTube page so you don't miss any of my content. I'm also on other shows. I don't just

00:12:36.140 do the Alberta Roundup anymore. I hope that you guys have a great rest of your week. For those of you

00:12:40.080 in Calgary, I hope that you stay hydrated and clean. God bless. See you guys on Saturday.

00:12:45.720 Thank you.

The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - June 19, 2024

Calgarians turn to pandemic-era snitch lines

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