The risk around the City of Calgary’s capital infrastructure has been assessed at extensive, the highest risk rating, and requires “urgent, top level attention,” according to a new city report.
The report, which is set to be discussed by the city’s audit committee Thursday, comes after the second critical failure of the Bearspaw feeder main in less than two years; a pipe that carries 60 per cent of Calgary’s drinking water.
It noted the city’s risk profile is “trending upwards” due to pressures driven by infrastructure challenges and population growth.
Since the last risk assessment in the spring, the city’s capital infrastructure risk rating rose from high to extensive, exceeding the city’s “desired risk appetite” and requiring “ongoing attention and robust response,” according to the report.
The report said the city’s understanding of critical infrastructure risk changed following the Dec. 30 rupture of the feeder main, which plunged the city into two weeks of heavy water restrictions as repairs took place.
“The water main that burst is a microcosm of the state of infrastructure in Calgary, and Calgary’s experience is a microcosm of what’s happening across the country,” said Matti Siemiatycki, director of the Infrastructure Institute at the University of Toronto.
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“We have billions of dollars in infrastructure that’s buried and behind walls that was built in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s, that’s getting old and that hasn’t been maintained all that well.”
According to the report, much of the city’s infrastructure is aging, with some “exceeding their expected lifespans.” Deferred maintenance and limited capital investment are also accelerating deterioration.
While the report noted most of the city’s infrastructure is in good condition, 11 per cent of its assets are in poor to very poor condition.
“Assets in this state have a higher risk of failure, which could lead to service disruptions and potential health and safety issues,” the report said.
Those assets include water infrastructure, IT infrastructure, fleet vehicles, buildings, bridges and roads.
“Our assets are aging and we are now looking at risk differently, focusing on high-consequence assets and system redundancy,” a city spokesperson said in a statement. “The city’s focus is safe, reliable infrastructure and responsible asset management.”
The report lists multiple factors behind the city’s infrastructure risk, including requirements for new infrastructure to meet population growth, as well as rising construction costs and insufficient funding from other orders of government to invest in projects.
It also notes concerns with a labour shortage in the construction industry, which the report said creates issues with the city’s ability to deliver projects.
Bill Black, president and CEO of the Calgary Construction Association, said although the shortage of labour should be assessed as a risk, infrastructure projects require specialized resources that can be available if projects are brought forward quickly.
“You need to make decisions now so resources get allocated before some other opportunity arises,” he said. “Time, from an inflationary and from a resource perspective, is absolutely of the essence.”
When asked about the report, Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas said the city’s infrastructure deficit has been ignored for far too long, and that “needs to change.”
“We need to tackle our infrastructure deficit once and for all, and we need to be transparent with Calgarians in terms of the potential costs,” Farkas said.
“Make no mistake, it’s not just our water utility. It’s rec centres, it’s transportation, it’s transit — Calgary is falling short in these needed investments.”
The report lists several ongoing strategies to manage the city’s infrastructure risk, including preventative maintenance and replacement of the Bearspaw feeder main, as well as increased and regular asset inspections, condition assessments, and performance analytics for critical infrastructure.
City officials are also developing a city-wide 10-year capital investment plan and “project pipeline” to prioritize needed maintenance and projects, as well as outline upcoming work on city assets.
According to the city, councillors will be receiving reports over the next four months around critical infrastructure, asset condition and capital needs to give Calgarians an idea of the required costs.
“This latest report tells us what we knew intuitively but also puts a price tag to what the cost of inaction would be,” Farkas said. “Either we pay now or we pay a hell of a lot more later.”
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