Calgary’s water review cost about $2.29 million, according to the City of Calgary’s independent review page. The memo the city published alongside that figure, signed by Chief Administrative Officer David Duckworth on October 28, 2026, has tables that add to $2,271,701.
The gap is under $20,000. It matters less for its size than for what it shows about how the number was assembled.
The review followed the June 2024 break of the Bearspaw South Feeder Main. A six-member panel worked for nine months and delivered its report to council in January 2026. Council then voted on October 27, 2026 to make the costs public, and the city did so the next day.
Key facts
- The City of Calgary states the Bearspaw South Feeder Main independent review and related work cost approximately $2.29 million.
- The City of Calgary’s October 28, 2026 cost memo records $1,752,414 paid on an hourly basis to the panel chair, Siegfried Kiefer.
- The October 28, 2026 cost memo records a fixed fee of $79,600 for each of the five other panel members.
- At a fourth-quarter 2024 update, Calgary administration gave council an estimated budget range of $1 million to $2 million for the review’s initial scope, according to the October 28, 2026 memo.
- The panel’s final report, dated January 6, 2026, made four urgent actions and three near-term recommendations.
What the Calgary water review cost, line by line
The cost memo splits the money into panel fees and associated costs. Panel fees total $2,150,414. Associated costs total $121,287: $33,032 for a panel coordinator, $45,000 for engineering consultants, $35,169 for equipment and $8,086 for incidentals and travel. A third table covers the Implementation Advisory Group that followed, at $126,000 from March 1 to June 30, 2026.
The city’s web page rounds those numbers, and one of them moves. Coordination support appears on the page as $20,200, against $33,032 in the memo. Add the page’s own line items and, by Alberta Tribune’s arithmetic, they come to about $2.26 million, not $2.29 million. Add all three memo tables and the total is $2,397,701. None of these sums matches the headline figure exactly, and neither document explains which items the $2.29 million includes.
The chair’s share stands out. By Alberta Tribune’s arithmetic, $1,752,414 is 77% of the memo’s panel and associated costs, and about 22 times the fee paid to each other member. The memo says the chair billed hourly at a negotiated rate. It doesn’t give the rate or the hours.
How the City of Calgary explains the cost of the review
The city’s answer deserves its full weight. The memo describes the work as a “comprehensive, independent and evidence-based assessment from uniquely qualified industry experts.” It gives three reasons for the total: a nine-month review covering every part of the water utility, the need for independent engineering and technical expertise, and extra effort as the scope became fully defined, along with support while the city responded to the second feeder main break. The other five members were paid flat fees, which left the chair’s hourly contract as the only cost that could rise with the work. A review that grew while a second break was under way is a plausible reason to exceed a range set before contracts were signed.
That explanation covers why the number went up. It doesn’t show how far the hourly work ran past the $1 million to $2 million range, or who approved the extra hours when they were billed. The city’s contract and invoice files would show both. Readers who follow how Calgary documents its numbers can compare the approach in the police staffing plan that went from 660 officers to 309.
Where the review’s seven recommendations are tracked
The money bought a report. What it’s worth depends on what happens to the recommendations inside it. The panel’s final report asked that the water utility’s asset management plans carry clear actions, owners and timelines, and that the utility report progress each year to its oversight board. The panel’s close-out letter of June 30, 2026 named five near-term priorities, including a rate application targeted for fall 2027, and said the city’s implementation plan was still under development, with “key deliverables being tracked and progress reported.”
Calgarians are paying for the fixes on their utility bills, as the proposed climb from $119.21 to $206.94 by 2030 shows, and for new capacity such as the $533 million North water servicing project. That makes the tracking question practical.
No published document yet lists each of the seven recommendations beside a named owner, a deadline and a result. The document that would settle it is the Water Transformation Program implementation plan the close-out letter describes, and it sits with the Chief Administrative Officer’s office. The chair’s hourly rate and billed hours, held in the same administration’s contract file, would settle the rest.
