Calgary ends state of emergency, but keeps water lockdown for residents and businesses

Sydney Fizzard
  |   July 05, 2024   |   Be the first to comment

We could go on for hours so let’s just keep it to the facts — it’s a mess at Mayor Jyoti Gondek’s city hall.

Calgary has abandoned bringing its broken feeder main back into full operation. The city finished repairs, but was the problem fixed? No. City officials have, by no means, properly tested the integrity or pressure capacity of the pipe, meaning additional failures may be just around the corner.

Authorities say it could now take weeks to finish testing, and months to identify a medium-long term recovery plan. How many years will it take to properly fix? Nobody knows. Worse yet, the city apparently still doesn't know why the original feeder main suddenly burst, and more importantly, why it wasn't able to prevent the problem in the first place.

Let’s not get into the 100+km of similarly constructed pipe under our city, which may be liable to suddenly burst at any time — or the rest of our decaying water system which has, and continues to struggle, to maintain itself during this time.

It's a hot mess, and the city needs to provide answers.

There is an investigation — sorry, an “independent review” — which is supposed to act as a third-party accountability investigation into the pipe burst, city system operations, and water supply resilience. Mayor Jyoti Gondek initiated this review by tasking the city’s top bureaucrat, Chief Administrative Officer David Duckworth, to develop the structure for this third-party review into the city.

How’s that for an oxymoron?

Timelines for this review were expected to take months, but after Duckworth's first proposal presented at city hall — which was despicable and poorly thought out — we’re being told it could now take more than a year for this internal review to conclude.

October 2025 is the next general election for the city but what will come first for Calgary, a new mayor or accountability?

How much do you think this will cost? Again, nobody knows. We do know that the mayor has put changes in the upcoming budget to pay for an entire water system reevaluation and repairs. She is also looking to hike utility rates to compensate for the sudden feeder main burst costs.

After the feeder main burst, Mayor Gondek put Calgary under Stage 4 water restrictions. This means absolutely no outdoor water use is allowed for residents or businesses. Fines of $3,000 have been issued a-plenty for water misuse as defined by the bylaw.

Implemented to ease water use while the feeder main was out of service, these water lockdown measures have and will continue to remain in effect for an unknown amount of time. Meanwhile, the city promotes capturing rainwater or filling buckets down by the river to compensate for the loss.

During this crisis, the city has also been begging Calgarians not to use water indoors for hygienic measures, such as washing dishes, flushing toilets, doing laundry, and showering.

Remember, indoor restrictions were not mandated by any law. It was an ask from the city for Calgarians to consider using less water.

So, where’s the mayor? Jyoti Gondek has left the chat.

Self-adulation has been on full display at the last few press conferences as she and the bureaucrats celebrate each other over an end to the state of emergency and lifting of indoor water restrictions.

No more daily pressroom updates either.

And this here is the ugly truth: the local state of emergency was implemented to access private property and supplies during construction, nothing more.

The indoor water restrictions were always an ask, not part of Stage 4 restrictions in the water bylaw. Mayor Gondek and the gang have been ferociously celebrating the expiration of this state of emergency as well as the lifting of indoor restrictions, while softly mentioning that Stage 4 restrictions remain.

Since June 5, the pipe is still broken, the system is still crumbling, the city still doesn’t know how bad the situation is, the investigation is delayed into oblivion, the costs for this mess are still undetermined, and the Stage 4 water restrictions for businesses and residents remain in place.

But sure, let’s celebrate the fact that we can flush our toilets without Gondek’s judgement.

This is especially despicable considering these water restrictions are not new, in fact the opposite is true.

These measures align with Gondek’s longstanding desire to restrict water use, as is being called for by globalist outlets like the World Economic Forum and United Nations.

Usually, she takes to the podium during dry weather to prophesize about pending dooms of drought which require reduced water use. This time. she implemented drought water restrictions in response to an infrastructure crisis and walked away from the podium before too many people started asking too many questions.

“We have tackled this crisis” Gondek says proudly while running away from media availability, and having created a prolonged disaster which will plague the city for what could be decades.

Gondek is the drought she warns of. Happy one month anniversary of the feeder main burst!

Sydney Fizzard

Video Journalist

After seeing the manipulation and harm caused by the pandemic narrative, Sydney Fizzard started on the path of reporting in mid 2020. With an interest in hearing from everyday Canadians, politicians, business owners, religious figures and community leaders, Syd aims to reveal underlying truths and examine societal movement. Notably, Syd spent 16 consecutive days at the Coutts, Alberta border blockade.

https://twitter.com/SydFizzard

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