🔎Independent review of Bearspaw water main break exposes how low-density sprawl "exacerbated" Calgary’s current infrastructure crisis
According to a newly released report by an independent review panel, decades of low-density sprawl “exacerbated the risk and integrity challenges that ultimately affected the [Bearspaw South Feedermain]”. The pipe serves as a critical watermain for 60% of Calgary’s water supply and is now experiencing its second "catastrophic" failure in less than two years, forcing Calgarians to once again conserve water or risk more boil water advisories.
Even once the current break is repaired, the water main risks further failures like a “ticking time bomb” until it is entirely replaced, which is expected to take years.
Source: Bearspaw South Feedermain Independent Review Panel: Final Report | January 6, 2026
The report lays bare Calgary’s sprawl-induced catastrophe, revealing that the city has the dubious distinction of the highest per capita water infrastructure pipe length of all major Canadian peer cities - even 13% more than Edmonton. It explains how decades of prioritizing spending on the construction of sprawling, low-density communities instead of investing in maintenance of critical infrastructure contributed to the city’s infrastructure crisis.
Repealing citywide rezoning in light of this report would be irresponsible of City Council, as it would be knowingly reverting to the very conditions that “exacerbated” the current infrastructure crisis, according to the independent review panel.
“Dig up, stupid!”: Only 2-months in office, this City Council risks digging Calgary into deeper trouble
Though only in office for two months, the latest City Council has already made at least two irresponsible decisions that will only serve to deepen Calgary’s crumbling infrastructure crisis:
- 🛣️ Voted to spend $24-million to fast-track more sprawl development in Glacier Ridge diverting finite infrastructure dollars and ignoring the expert advice of City Administration, which called the decision "premature" (Farkas, Tyers, Wyness, Yule, Clark, Chabot, Ward, McLean, Johnston).
- 🧨 Voted to begin the process to repeal citywide rezoning that legalized building gentle density like rowhomes in Calgary’s aging, low-density communities (Farkas, Tyers, Wyness, Yule, Kelly, Dhaliwal, Pantazopoulos, Clark, Chabot, Ward, Jamieson, McLean, Johnston).
🥾No Path Forward: Will Mayor Farkas step up and lead?
Mayor Farkas campaigned on repealing and replacing rezoning, but to date he has not provided Calgarians with a proposed path forward for “replacement” or how he intends to “support gentle density while building a variety of homes at a more affordable price point” as he promised in his election platform.
Mayor Farkas’ 2025 election campaign promised “gentle density while building a variety of homes at a more affordable price point”, but he has thus far not provided Calgarians details on his path forward despite his plans to repeal rezoning. (Source: jeromy.ca)
By blazing ahead to repeal citywide rezoning in the absence of a plan for what comes after, Farkas is doubling down on the mistakes of the past that led us to the current infrastructure crisis.
Meanwhile, councillors have proposed numerous adjustments to Calgary’s rezoning to address community feedback, including reducing maximum lot coverage, elimination of zero lot lines, reducing the maximum building height, requiring contextual setbacks, and better rules for protecting existing tree canopy.
The challenges of redevelopment in established communities are solvable. But as the Bearspaw Watermain catastrophe has shown, the City can no longer afford to continue to ignore the problem of financially unsustainable sprawl.
🪨 Two birds, one stone: citywide rezoning helps tackle the crumbling infrastructure crisis and the housing affordability crisis
Image source: (Globe and Mail)
Calgary’s low-density, low-tax productivity, donut of decline communities are facing crumbling pipes and basic infrastructure that’s in urgent need of replacement. The City’s Housing Strategy, which includes rezoning to legalize gentle density, like row homes, provides a viable financial path for the City to fund these necessary investments without overburdening taxpayers citywide or risking further deterioration and collapse of more of the basic infrastructure we depend on.
Among the key benefits of rezoning for gentle density are:
🚰 Funding reinvestment in established neighbourhoods - like lifecycle replacement of critical infrastructure;
💸Reducing Calgary’s dependency on financially costly sprawl that paves over farmland and natural ecosystems around Calgary;
📈 Maximizing land values and choice for homeowners;
🏘️ Providing a greater variety of housing options within neighbourhoods;
🏘️ Creating more housing supply to accommodate Calgary’s growing population without spreading finite public resources even thinner.
⚡️ TAKE ACTION: Ask City Council to show leadership by steering Calgary out of its crumbling infrastructure crisis and housing affordability crisis
📨Email City Council
Take a moment to email City Council and let them know you support rezoning to legalize duplexes and row homes citywide, and that repealing the bylaw in light of the Bearspaw Feedermain Independent Review Panel Report would be financially irresponsible.
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