City of Calgary officials are asking city council for another injection of funds for upgrades to the city’s water infrastructure, which is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
The request, which was added as urgent business to Tuesday’s executive committee meeting, asks city councillors to approve a $6o9.5 million boost to the city’s capital budget in 2026 and 2027, to help fast-track several water infrastructure projects.
It comes after the previous city council approved more than $1 billion in borrowing for water infrastructure, which was included in this year’s budget by the current city council.
“This is very much about catching up to where the city needs to be,” Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas told reporters.
According to city officials, $222 million of the funding boost will be directed to a new 22-km feeder main north from the Bearspaw Water Treatment Plant, which is already under construction, and another $15 million will pay for advanced metering infrastructure.
“Failing to take action would put service reliability at risk, which is vital for maintaining the availability and quality of essential services. Continued investment is needed to address,” reads the report to committee. “Vulnerabilities and ensure the system remains strong and resilient for the community.”
The total cost associated with the Bearspaw feeder main, which suffered its second critical failure in less than two years on Dec. 30, 2025, is expected to be $439 million. Although $71.6 million has already been approved by city council, and the funding increase would see an additional $367.4 million earmarked for the project.
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The bulk of that funding, $318 million, will be to replace the feeder main with a new steel pipe parallel to the existing line. The project was fast-tracked earlier this year and is expected to be complete by December.
“We were always going to be building that but we were going to be doing it over 2026, 2027 and 2028,” City of Calgary Infrastructure Services general manager Michael Thompson told Global News.
“We’ve accelerated all of that and we’re going to be delivering it in 2026, so we need that funding now to do all that work.”
City officials are putting aside $40 million for reinforcement repairs to the feeder main, which is slated to begin on March 9 and will require water restrictions for four weeks.
Another $18 million will be allocated for a “slip line,” a new liner that will be installed in the existing feeder main to help stabilize the pipe.
“This price tag, it doesn’t just deliver the replacement of the line, but it also brings back our existing that’s failing back to a serviceable standard,” Farkas said. “So we actually get two Bearspaw feeder mains for this price tag.”
City administration is also requesting an operating budget increase of $21.3 million from reserves to “provide boots-on-the-ground capacity” for city water services.
According to a report to committee members, the funding will pay for “additional frontline crews, inspection and monitoring capacity, updated asset management, strengthening of emergency preparedness, water demand implementation, and capital to operational
transition and readiness.”
The majority of the funding request, $564.4 million, would be financed through self-supported debt, expected to push the city’s debt limit to 45 per cent in 2026 and 50 per cent in 2027.
Although the move won’t impact water rates in 2026, city officials note rates are expected to increase by 14 per cent in 2027, or an additional $17 monthly.
“Lately there’s not a lot of good news for Calgarians for pocketbook issues like for paying for this water pipe and property taxes,” Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean told reporters.
“It was neglect and it’s unacceptable. I’m angry but we have to move forward and we have to get it fixed.”
The city’s executive committee unanimously approved the funding request, which will require a decision by city council on March 17.
A final decision on water rates will have to wait until budget talks in November.
“We need to fix this,” Farkas said. “It’s honestly embarrassing for us as a city of almost two million people that we can’t rely on safe drinking water.”
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