Will they ask the hard questions? Will there be any finger-pointing? Is anybody to blame? Did someone not do their job?
So here we are. Pipe busts June 5.
It is the summer of our discontent.
When Calgarians wanted to know what the hell was going on, there was a lot of tap dancing by city hall paper shufflers and we weren’t getting the answers we wanted so to calm citizens they cooked up a so-called independent investigation into the water pipe fiasco.
Of course, the city hall higher-ups screwed things up royally.
They presented a plan where they would have their fingers all over this so-called review of the water pipe debacle because if there is one thing Calgary city hall loves it’s control.
They know knowledge is power and if we don’t have the knowledge we don’t have the power and they stay in the driver’s seat.
On Wednesday we find out more from Duckworth.
Duckworth is picking three prominent business types in Calgary to be an advisory group. He will reveal the names of the trio on July 30 at a city council meeting.
He knows them as business acquaintances. They’ve chatted a couple of times.
This advisory group will work with an executive recruitment firm of their choosing to pick a person to head up the probe into Calgary’s water woes.
Then the person heading up the investigation will choose the rest of the investigation panel.
He or she will come back to city council, likely in October, to tell the politicians who is on the panel and what they will be investigating.
What if there is some area of investigation city council believes should be considered for a look-see and isn’t being given the once-over?
Duckworth says the panel can “take that under advisement.”
Duckworth says he has “full confidence” they will know how and where to dig.
By the way, it was originally thought the panel would be finished their work by Halloween.
Now the probe would just be getting off the ground by then and we’ve been told it could be a year or more for them to get to the finish line.
Their report would come out AFTER the city election in the fall of next year.
Figuring out what happened with the water pipe would take longer than the first 888-page investigation into the assassination of U.S. president John F. Kennedy.
Jennifer Wyness is one councillor who has been a pain in the butt to the city hall brass because she simply wants answers to her questions.
Imagine that.
On Wednesday, the vast majority of council asked nothing because, according to one of them, they were tired after discussing city budgeting including the financial train wreck known as the Green Line LRT.
Wyness is still concerned about what Calgarians will think of this whole process. She gets little support from her council colleagues and it is not the first time.
In some circles, there is a sneaking suspicion this whole investigation will not give the answers Calgarians want.
Was there negligence? People at city hall shiver over that word. Negligence means responsibility means lawyers.
Or will the findings be what we could write now?
“There must be a more robust inspection schedule for water pipes and the maintenance of city water infrastructure must be a high priority and more dollars must be committed to it and all orders of government should contribute to fund this important item.”
Will they ask the hard questions? Will there be any finger-pointing? Is anybody to blame? Did someone not do their job?
Will this panel go through emails, texts, memos, all internal communication to find out?
We already know what city hall is telling us. The pipe broke. No one could have predicted it. They didn’t inspect the pipe for years and years but they tell us there were no leaks. This was just a catastrophic failure.
City hall says nobody at city hall is at fault. The pipe broke and the hot spots just happened like a meteorite hitting you while walking down Stephen Avenue.
And 15 or 16 months from now, when the report of all this, will people remember? Will it matter? Will city hall have grabbed our attention stepping into more doo-doo?
And will life just go on at city hall making a tweak here and there but keeping everyone warming their comfy seat?