Calgary Council: $6 Billion Infrastructure Crisis Looms

CALGARY, AB — The bill just came due. City Council received a report this week laying out the damage: nearly $6 billion worth of Calgary's infrastructure is rated in "poor condition," and the clock is ticking on some very high-stakes gambles—particularly the water mains that broke twice in less than a year.

The numbers are stark. Over $1.5 billion is needed for aging water mains and treatment plants over the next decade, including $1.2 billion for the water main network alone and $590 million for treatment plants. Transit infrastructure? That's another $2.3 billion on the shopping list. The full tab—somewhere between $5.7 billion and $6.16 billion—will land on the table during budget talks in November.

The report, delivered to the Infrastructure and Planning committee on February 11 and to City Council the following day, frames what the city calls its "Infrastructure Status Report." The headline: 11% of the city's critical bones are crumbling.

The Bearspaw Feeder Main Is Still the Ghost at Every Meeting

If that $6 billion figure feels abstract, Mayor Jeromy Farkas delivered a concrete reminder today: two new wire snaps were detected on the Bearspaw South Feeder Main, the same pipe that catastrophically ruptured in June 2024 and again in December 2025. Both breaks triggered city-wide water restrictions and states of emergency. Both times, Calgarians watched their taps run dry.

Farkas—who rode into office in October 2025 promising an expedited replacement of the feeder main—has not ordered an immediate shutdown. Instead, the city has closed the westbound 16th Avenue NW exit to Sarcee Trail as a precaution and ramped up fiber-optic monitoring on the pipe. The replacement project, which kicked off construction on January 23, is still targeting a December 2026 finish. Today's news raises the question: will the old pipe hold that long?

Local business owners like Loann Ly in Montgomery are already dealing with the fallout. Road closures mean fewer customers. Anxiety means fewer answers. Engineering experts like Kerry Black from the University of Calgary are parsing the data, but the friction is clear: every new wire snap is a reminder that Calgary is one bad day away from another water crisis.

The Money Problem Isn't Going Away

The city's asset management team, led by Steve Wyton, and Infrastructure Services under General Manager Michael Thompson and Director Ryan Vanderputten, presented the report as part of the Corporate Asset Management Plan. The funding framework currently in play is the 2023-2026 Service Plans and Budgets, which included a $3.8 billion infrastructure plan endorsed in the November 2025 budget adjustment. That was never going to be enough.

The new ask—nearly double that figure over the next ten years—sets up a brutal conversation in November. Council will have to decide which failing systems get fixed first, and which ones get to roll the dice a little longer. A 10-year priority project list is expected by May, but the real fireworks start when the budget talks begin in earnest.

What Happens Next

The city's infrastructure team is finalizing recommendations for the May priority plan. The Bearspaw replacement project continues under heightened scrutiny, with monitoring teams watching every inch of pipe. Road closures remain in effect on 16th Avenue NW, and residents in the northwest quadrant are bracing for potential disruptions.

Farkas and City Council have eight months to figure out how to fund a $6 billion rebuild without blowing up property taxes or gutting services. The Independent Review Panel's January report on the June 2024 break already identified systemic weaknesses in the city's water management. Now the question is whether anyone has the political will—or the wallet—to fix it before the next break.

Budget deliberations are set for November. The wire snaps are being monitored daily. The parallel feeder main project is still on schedule for December completion. For now, the city is holding its breath.