The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - Calgary is falling apart

00:00:00.000 A major water main that supplies 60% of Calgary's water supply is still not fixed after the main

00:00:06.380 began leaking last week. This is no small water main. The break occurred in what's considered to

00:00:11.940 be one of the city's main arteries, taking water from the treatment facility in the north to 23

00:00:18.420 reservoirs across the city of Calgary. The main is so big that you can drive a vehicle through it.

00:00:23.700 On Sunday, Calgary Mayor Jody Gonick was forced to apologize for the city's poor communication

00:00:29.120 regarding the water crisis. But what the mayor has said in recent days hasn't reassured me

00:00:34.180 one bit. We pay record amounts in property taxes, and yet basic city infrastructure is falling apart.

00:00:41.440 Anyone paying attention is beginning to wonder, where's all our money going?

00:00:44.980 I'm Rachel Emanuel, and this is the Alberta Roundup.

00:00:47.060 Rachel Emanuel brings the news each day. On Alberta Roundup, she has her say.

00:00:58.220 Okay everyone, before we get started here, some of you will notice that I am recording in a different

00:01:02.020 location. Some of you have complained repeatedly under the comments section about the white wall

00:01:07.620 that I typically use, saying that it is very hard on the eyes when you're watching the show on your TV.

00:01:12.200 So I thought I would try something different for a little while. Let me know if you prefer

00:01:16.280 the new background color, or if you would prefer that I go back to the old white that I've been

00:01:21.060 using for some time now. Okay everyone, let's start by diving into the details and looking into what

00:01:25.640 happened last week Wednesday when the pipe burst. That was eight days ago now. The pipe is officially

00:01:30.700 known as the Bear Spa South Feeder Main, and officials are still unsure what caused the break.

00:01:36.640 In fact, Calgary Mayor Jody Gonick has said that the pipe was in good condition,

00:01:40.140 and had some maintenance work done to add technology, such as air valves, to ensure its future performance.

00:01:46.780 She also said that the pipe has a 100 year lifespan, and is only 50 years into that lifespan,

00:01:52.900 so about halfway of what we should have expected of its performance. So I think at this point we have

00:01:57.160 more questions than answers as to what went wrong last week. As I mentioned before, the pipe is

00:02:02.340 actually big enough to drive a vehicle through. Those of you who are watching this podcast on video

00:02:06.680 format, which I believe most of you do, are able to get a good look right now as to exactly how big

00:02:12.360 this water main was. As I mentioned before, big enough to drive a vehicle through. This thing is

00:02:17.000 absolutely massive, which is part of the reason it's taking crews so long to dig down, figure out

00:02:22.160 where the pipe had broken, and then begin getting that piece out of the ground so that it could be

00:02:26.580 replaced. The Broker Feederman is in Bonus, which is a community in Calgary's northwest, very close to

00:02:32.820 where I live. And that community has been under a boil water advisory until Monday. Officials are

00:02:38.960 also warning Calgarians that if they don't continue to cut down on their water use, the city runs the

00:02:44.400 risk of running out of treated water. Officials suggested reducing shower times by a few minutes,

00:02:50.560 skipping a few flushes of the toilet, or holding off on doing laundry for the time being. Stage four

00:02:56.020 outdoor watering restrictions are in place, meaning you can't water plants, your lawn, or use tap water for

00:03:02.160 any other purposes outside. Businesses are also being asked to stop all non-essential water uses,

00:03:07.340 which includes construction, exterior window cleaning, pesticide application, and washing

00:03:12.620 surfaces. Now, Calgary estimated last week that it would take five to seven days to fix the pipeline,

00:03:17.800 but officials still don't have an exact timeline, and it's been a week. Take a listen.

00:03:22.380 We're building out the timeline for what this looks like once we get the new pipe in, and then we've

00:03:27.820 got to start filling the pipe and get everything back in service.

00:03:30.400 Now that we know exactly what has gone wrong, even though we don't have an answer to the biggest

00:03:34.560 question why the pipe burst in the first place, let's take a look at what Calgary Mayor Jodi

00:03:38.580 Gondek has been saying. After her initial apology on Sunday, Gondek has been holding more briefings

00:03:43.180 throughout the week. The city has been doing about two press conferences a day to update Calgarians

00:03:47.140 on the water crisis. Here's Gondek giving an update at her Tuesday briefing.

00:03:50.780 We might have the feeder main repaired in five to seven days. Following that, it still needs to be

00:03:57.360 flushed, and the water will need to be tested. That means several more days of all of us being

00:04:02.800 low water users. Now, the mayor has been appearing in press briefings more often to reassure Calgarians

00:04:08.560 and to give them clear information on the situation. And I didn't see much media coverage of what she said

00:04:13.960 next in this briefing, but it was actually a chilling revelation to those of us paying attention.

00:04:18.880 Take a listen. Yesterday morning, we also learned of a small water main break in Bowness, which

00:04:24.900 impacted 21 households. And while we know that water main breaks happen to the tune of about 200

00:04:31.000 a year in the city, it was still another blow to our neighbors in Bowness. In this press conference,

00:04:36.700 the mayor drops that there's been another water break in the poor community of Bowness, who's just

00:04:41.760 taken an absolute beating. She sort of covered this by saying, you know, there's about 200 of these,

00:04:46.780 it was unrelated to the initial incident. That does not make me feel better. The fact that it was

00:04:51.700 unrelated to the initial water break does not give me confidence in this whatsoever. Now, for those of

00:04:58.000 you who are feeling uneasy, next, the mayor says that access to the feeder main, which is currently

00:05:03.180 being fixed, also needs to be repaired. Take a listen. Now, while the crews are in the ground,

00:05:09.380 they're also repairing an access point to that feeder main. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together

00:05:14.580 at this point is beginning to understand that Calgary's water supply system is in a very fragile

00:05:20.780 state. And then the mayor goes on CTV news and she isn't able to say whether or not she has confidence

00:05:26.540 that this was a one-off incident. Take a listen to that. Any concerns that it may fail somewhere else

00:05:31.840 as well? Or does it look like this might've just been a one-off in that one spot? So the water team

00:05:37.280 does regular checks. There was maintenance done on this line, routine maintenance in April of this

00:05:43.660 year. So the good news scenario is that all the parts and the equipment that we need to do the

00:05:48.720 repair are available to us. They're just waiting to go into the ground once the assessment is done.

00:05:55.880 You know what? We do regular maintenance on a lot of our infrastructure and we do a review of the

00:06:00.960 infrastructure on a regular basis to see how it's doing. Instead of going ahead and agreeing with

00:06:05.440 the host and reassuring Calgarians that yes, this incident was a one-off, Gondek goes ahead and says

00:06:11.040 that there was regular maintenance being done on this major feedmate, which personally makes me feel

00:06:15.980 even worse. So we apparently are already taking regular looks at this line to make sure that issues

00:06:22.080 don't arise. And yet the biggest water leak in the city's history, probably even the province's history

00:06:28.200 occurs under this mayor's watch. So just to sum up, there's been a break in a major water feed

00:06:33.440 that officials still don't know when is going to be fixed. While that was happening in the city of

00:06:37.920 Bowness, there was also another break in a water main in the city of Bowness, a smaller one unrelated

00:06:43.300 to the first incident, as if that's supposed to reassure us somehow that things are running very

00:06:48.200 smoothly over at the city of Calgary. Then an access point to the major water feed also needed to be

00:06:54.160 fixed so that officials could get down and fix this issue in the first place. And while all of this is

00:06:59.160 going on, the mayor of Calgary is not able to come out and say that this incident was a one-off.

00:07:04.720 Instead, she tries to reassure us by saying that regular maintenance was being done on this. If

00:07:09.980 regular maintenance was being done on this, how did this incident happen in the first place?

00:07:13.220 You think this is something officials would have been able to catch before it turned into the massive

00:07:17.400 citywide crisis that is happening right now. So much so to the point that you are all being asked to

00:07:22.580 stop showering and you're not able to water your lawns or even flush your toilets. It's even worse if

00:07:28.800 you're living in Bowness where you weren't able to access safe drinking water unless you were able

00:07:33.760 to drive to one of the vans that was supplying it. Now, I know you all were thinking this Calgary

00:07:38.800 hellscape couldn't get any worse, but you would be wrong because of course there are still many

00:07:43.560 Canadians who are all too eager to return to the COVID era of rules and telling on your neighbors,

00:07:49.880 which is exactly what some Calgarians have resorted to doing when they felt their neighbors

00:07:54.100 weren't doing an adequate job of consuming water. Take a look at this clip from a Calgary official this week.

00:07:59.700 While most Calgarians are doing their best and following water restrictions, we have been attending

00:08:06.260 to some people who have not. Since June 6th, we've dealt with a number of incidences of people misusing water.

00:08:12.180 We've issued 993 notices and resolved 934 calls. Of those resolved, we've had 249 written warnings,

00:08:22.820 321 verbal warnings, and we have issued the same one ticket. While there is room for improvement,

00:08:31.300 we're encouraged by the far greater number of Calgarians that are complying with the water

00:08:35.780 restrictions, especially during Calgary's short growing season. Now, just because I know how things

00:08:41.220 are so easily manipulated and flipped on the internet, I'm not taking this as a call not to

00:08:45.540 follow the stage four restrictions. You can make that decision for yourself. You can look at the

00:08:50.020 information that's being provided and decide if you want to follow these rules or not, and if you want

00:08:54.500 to risk the fine or not. If I was living in Calgary, I probably would be able to follow the rules fairly

00:08:59.620 quickly considering that I didn't have a lawn and I had no outside plants to water anyways, so I doubt I

00:09:05.940 would be very impacted by these restrictions to begin with. That said, I also wouldn't be the type of person

00:09:10.980 to stand at my window, taking notes of people who I didn't feel were doing an adequate job of

00:09:14.980 following the city restrictions and calling and telling of them, and I suspect most of you aren't

00:09:19.220 those types of people either. Now, I'm not the first person to observe this nightmare, and I won't be

00:09:23.300 the last, so now let's take a look at some of the comments that were left under Calgary Mayor Jody

00:09:28.180 Gondek's press briefings this week. This first comment is from Zinquips. How many tickets have been issued to 1.00

00:09:33.940 the city for misusing water? Since the flood in 2013, millions of municipal dollars have been spent on

00:09:39.620 improving water management. Apparently, the solution was enrich their friends associated

00:09:44.580 with construction companies and leave a city with 1.3 million people with a water supply that is

00:09:50.500 reliant on one downstream pipe that was installed in the 1950s. When it broke, nobody can provide an

00:09:56.580 explanation or why there is zero redundancy. Now our mayor is suggesting that we shower with a bucket.

00:10:02.820 That's a great metaphor. These city hall grifters must catch millions in their grift buckets. I think

00:10:08.580 this comment raises a lot of important questions, questions that I myself am raising about

00:10:12.580 why are we paying so much in city property taxes when this is the type of service we're getting.

00:10:17.940 We don't even have basic needs like water being delivered to us, and obviously this is a provincial

00:10:22.980 government priority, but we saw the same thing in the winter in January when we had that cold spike.

00:10:26.660 We had one cold spike this January in what was otherwise a relatively warm winter, and already we were

00:10:32.500 being warned that if we didn't conserve our electricity use, we would be facing rolling brownouts.

00:10:37.540 So for those of us living in Alberta, we're probably looking around right now wondering

00:10:40.740 what is going on at the various levels of government that it has become such a difficulty

00:10:44.900 to provide us with basic services like water or electricity. Seems like every time things get a

00:10:50.260 little bit tough, you know, weather's a little colder than it usually is, all of a sudden we're

00:10:54.580 being in a position where we're being warned you might have to keep your lights off for a couple hours,

00:10:58.740 and if you don't do that then we're not going to have any electricity to provide to you to heat your homes.

00:11:03.540 As for the city of Calgary, they just raised property taxes this year, and then they turn

00:11:07.620 around and deliver this type of service to us. As many of you know, I'm in Ontario at the moment

00:11:11.540 visiting family. I'm sort of torn because I feel like I missed out on a big news story. It's actually

00:11:16.900 a story that is national interest, I think, just because it is a massive disaster and such mismanagement

00:11:23.140 of city water and mismanagement even of a crisis and how poorly they began communicating things.

00:11:28.740 So I'm torn. In one sense, I like to be on the ground to report things. In another sense,

00:11:33.140 I'm very glad and very relieved I don't have to deal with the irritation of water restrictions.

00:11:38.260 I have a young baby, I've just started feeding him solids. As any of you parents out there know,

00:11:42.740 it is an absolute nightmare when you start giving your baby solids for the first time. Food everywhere.

00:11:48.260 So, you know, we've been giving him a couple more baths than usual, so that would have been a bit of

00:11:51.540 an irritation if now I felt like I had to conserve water or risk running out. So, you know, I guess at the end

00:11:57.620 of the day I would say I'm pretty relieved not to be there, but watching this all happen from afar

00:12:02.020 makes me think, do I even want to live in Calgary? Do I want to live in a city where they continually

00:12:06.340 raise property taxes and are unable to deliver basic services like water? The answer is probably

00:12:11.860 not. I kind of suspect we won't want to live within the actual boundaries of city because I just

00:12:17.380 can't fathom being governed by a city council and city officials that are this incompetent at doing

00:12:24.500 their jobs. Paying that much in property taxes and then struggling to have things like water

00:12:29.860 delivered to your home. It just doesn't seem worth it to me. It doesn't seem worth it to me.

00:12:33.780 Let's keep taking a look at some of these comments. User Sapala said, better to issue tickets

00:12:38.420 now after days of warnings because until actual tickets issued, people will keep doing it knowing

00:12:44.500 no real tickets are issued. So this is pretty much a pretty common attitude of people that we see

00:12:50.020 on the left. Let's ticket our neighbors for things like watering the garden. I don't know.

00:12:54.980 I don't know what these instances were, but I'm just saying I hate this kind of stuff. It's so

00:12:58.740 unbelievably petty. I think Dr. Jordan Peterson put it best. Petty tyrants. Whenever incidents like

00:13:04.660 these arise, we see all the petty tyrants come out of the woodwork so eager to tell on their neighbors

00:13:09.940 and have a little bit of, you know, maybe feeling of power from that. And this is the type of behavior

00:13:14.820 that you run into a lot in the city. So again, I'm thinking might be best to move out of the city,

00:13:19.780 have a little more privacy from your neighbors, have a little more land. I'm just so tired of the

00:13:24.180 types of people that have really shown their true color since COVID and are always looking for an

00:13:30.180 excuse to basically tell on each other. Okay. And this comment, I just had to throw in there

00:13:34.500 because it made me laugh. Truthfully, I just thought this was funny. I have a very immature sense of humor.

00:13:38.660 User Titus Maximus said, I've been drinking my pee. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm very immature. You guys,

00:13:47.300 I thought that was hilarious. All right. So that wraps up today's show question of the week for you

00:13:51.780 all. How many of you are conserving your water use in Calgary and what do you think caused the break

00:13:58.740 in this major water feed? What do you think? All right, everyone, that's all we have time for today.

00:14:03.780 As always, I will be back on Saturday with my regular programming. Please like this video and

00:14:09.940 subscribe to True North so you don't miss any of our content. I hope that you guys have a

00:14:13.860 great rest of your week. I'll see you on Saturday. God bless.

The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - June 12, 2024

Calgary is falling apart

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