Before we invest billions in the Green Line, before we invest millions in slogans and branding, shouldn’t we just fix the leaks?
“The next world war may not be fought over religion or territory, it may be fought over water.”
Those words were spoken by a teacher sometime in my teenage years and I have never forgotten them. We can live without a lot of things, but not water, and that is why there is a visceral public reaction when governments try to introduce restrictions on our use of it.
We can understand a pipe breaking, we can skip a shower or two, but in the 21st century in Canada, our patience wears thin very quickly. This is especially true when what was portrayed as an unavoidable incident is increasingly being shown as something that potentially could have been anticipated and even avoided, if only the focus had been on the maintenance and infrastructure of our city and not on blue sky dreams.
Calgary’s water situation is complicated. There are two areas of focus — the use of water by the consumer and the control of leakage out of the system itself. “Water loss is the difference between the volume of water that is treated by a water treatment plant and the volume of water that is accounted and billed for at customer meters,” a city utilities manager states in a Jan. 30, 2024, memo to the mayor and council.
Imagine if a natural gas line or oil pipeline was leaking 20 per cent of the product flowing through it. These would be repaired in hours, not weeks. But even though we think of water as a precious commodity, we are willing to tolerate leakage, delay repairs and lecture citizens on how to conserve the water that comes out of their taps.
Much of the world uses “tiered water rates,” increasing the cost per litre as your consumption increases. Several years ago, on a trip to Japan, I saw a sink built into the top of the toilet tank in one house. The result was a neat and efficient way to have the water used to wash your hands simply drained into the toilet tank and then used for flushing. Simple, cost-effective and with no negative effect on the consumer. This is one common-sense approach rather than restrictive schedules or limiting access.
A financial day of reckoning is coming toward us.
The City of Calgary Annual Financial Report (Page 123) will show that our city is sitting on $4 billion in reserves, yet our basic infrastructure is rapidly deteriorating. Whatever the costs of the current water line repair — rumoured at more than $40 million — those funds must come straight out of the reserve funds and should have no effect on property taxes next year. The concern is that this huge reserve fund is being squirrelled away to offset the massive cost overruns anticipated on the Green Line.
We have every right to ask this council to get its priorities back on the basics, to admit when costs are out of control and then take the action needed to get them back in line. We absolutely have the right to say that they have to live within the limits of the money they have now and not increase taxes in the future, especially on projects that no one either understands or wants.
Maybe the slogan for the next election should be Fix The Pipes, because it appears that has been lost in the list of priorities currently being pursued.
George H. Brookman is chair and company ambassador of West Canadian Digital