Alberta orders third-party review of Calgary’s ongoing water rationing woes

CALGARY — The Alberta government has ordered a sweeping third-party investigation into Calgary’s ongoing water main problems that have yet again forced residents to ration their use.

Municipal Affairs Minister Dan Williams says the probe is not political even though it is expected to examine the actions and decisions of former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi.

Nenshi is now leader of the Opposition NDP and the main opponent of Premier Danielle Smith’s government, with an election slated for next year.

And Smith has already placed some of the blame for the water crisis on council actions when Nenshi was mayor.

Williams told a news conference Friday that the government has the authority and responsibility to investigate when core services fail in Alberta’s largest city, although he recognized the authority was “rarely used” and not routine.

“I’m not going to use this as a bludgeon,” he said.

He added the inquiry is not about assigning blame or pointing fingers but to learn about the system, the decisions made and to understand accountability and understand next steps.

The investigation will be headed by David Goldie, a former chair of Alberta’s energy regulator.

Goldie will have the power to compel documents and witnesses, similar to a public judicial inquiry, and is expected to report back on his findings by the fall.

Total cost is estimated at $1.2 million.

Williams was asked by reporters about government priorities and why this investigation has more authority to compel evidence than one that investigated questionable government dealing on multimillion-dollar health service contracts. The RCMP is running its own investigation on that front.

Williams, in response, repeatedly referred to his ministry’s mandate and to how critical water services are for public health.

“When it comes to municipal affairs, Calgarians would agree that this is a crisis,” he said. “This is not an odd prioritization (by the government). I think the question is odd.”

The move comes as Calgary residents and those in surrounding communities have been asked once again to reduce water use due to the ailing Bearspaw South Feeder Main.

The main supplies 60 per cent of the treated water and has ruptured twice in the last two years, forcing shutdowns for repairs.

The current round of repairs is expected to last a month as crews work on the existing pipe. At the same time, work is being done to replace parts of the ailing line, with that work expected to be done by year’s end.

The most recent break happened in December, sending a torrent of water that stranded cars and buckled the roadbed of a city thoroughfare. Residents are currently being asked to take shorter showers, reduce toilet flushes and cut back on laundry and dishwasher loads.

The line also failed in the summer of 2024.

On Friday, Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas issued a statement saying he supports the province’s inspection “of our water system.”

“We’ll cooperate fully while continuing major investments to strengthen the Calgary region’s infrastructure.”

Kathleen Ganley, NDP whip, said in a statement Friday’s announcement represented a waste of taxpayer dollars that will produce no real results for Calgarians who want to turn their water back on.

“This UCP government refused to use its power to compel documents or testimony on an actual health-care scandal that never ends,” Ganley said.

The provincially ordered review comes after the city already commissioned a report.

An independent panel released its review into the 2024 rupture in early January, attributing the cause and the overall fragility of the system to decades of underinvestment.

In its report, the panel traced the issue back to another water main rupture in 2004, which it said should have raised alarms about the health of other city water pipes.

It said a number of projects to inspect water pipes or carry out maintenance were deferred over the years in favour of other priorities. The panel wrote that no one city council or staff member was to blame, as it said it believed that nobody fully knew the gravity of the situation.

Smith’s government, however, has pushed for a fuller accounting.

In January, Williams demanded thousands of documents from the city dating back decades — even from city council meetings not open to the public.

Williams said Friday nothing was missing from those documents, or the independent review, but he wanted “context.”

Nenshi was mayor from 2010 to 2021, and Smith has previously sought to tie the water woes to him.

“The seeds of the problem today, make no mistake, began under previous administrations,” the premier told reporters earlier this year. Smith said severe floods caused by heavy rainfall in 2013 should have led the city to do widespread investigations of its water system.

“And you have to ask the question, well, ‘Who was the mayor after the floods of 2013 until he decided to retire?’ And that was Naheed Nenshi,” she said.

At the time, Nenshi called Smith’s accusations “total garbage.”

Political scientist Lori Williams questioned why the water affair warrants a more rigorous probe than the health-contract imbroglio, and wondered why the province wants to investigate something that has already been independently reviewed by the City of Calgary.

“The province has an opportunity here to be consistent and call an investigation (into the health contract affair) that is truly independent (and) does have the power to call witnesses, subpoena witnesses,” Williams, with Mount Royal University in Calgary, said in an interview.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 13, 2026.

— With files from Lisa Johnson in Edmonton

Dayne Patterson, The Canadian Press