For over a decade, Calgarians were sold a false vision by former mayors Naheed Nenshi and Jyoti Gondek. They claimed Calgary was a model of progressive professionalism. We were told our government was process-driven, expert-led, and well-managed.
The final redacted independent review into the Bearspaw South Feedermain failure tells a different, more indicting story.

It describes a City Hall, under the watch of Nenshi, that bloated unnecessary management, raised taxes, and funded symbolic priorities while failing to act on known, catastrophic infrastructure risks.
The collapse was slow, but most importantly, it was entirely avoidable.
Problems were identified as early as 2004. Yet, under the subsequent mayorship of Nenshi (2010–2021), the Water Utility managed to spend its full capital budget only twice. Money was collected, but the contingency work was not done.
The Nenshi administration was defined by a governance style that prioritized image over actual competence. It’s the same approach Nenshi would like to apply to the entire province if given the chance.
The report also notes that critical inspection recommendations for the feedermain made in 2017 and 2020 were deferred or redirected. The last Tactical Asset Management Plan was issued in 2017 and then left to gather dust. While the Mayor’s office perfected the art of narrative control and consensus-building, the “culture of deferral” became the safest career move within City Hall. It’s a classic case of kicking the can down the road.
As the technical oversight waned, an inefficient bureaucracy grew that took the place of competent experts.
Management layers thickened, and executive compensation climbed, yet accountability vanished into a “consensus-driven” void. We saw a city where money flowed freely to DEI initiatives, consultants, and communications teams, while the North Calgary Water Servicing Strategy, first proposed in 2011, was allowed to slip for over a decade.
The transition to the Jyoti Gondek administration (2021–2025) did not break this fever. Gondek had an opportunity to prevent disaster but instead, her lack of leadership only made things worse.
The report is explicit: the organizational restructuring completed in 2022, which split the Water Utility across multiple departments, exacerbated the lack of accountability. By 2024, leak rates reached 22%, nearly double the industry median. Even as the system neared a breaking point, the City continued to extract annual dividends from the utility to fund general spending (read more: anti-racism initiatives), a move the report calls “inconsistent with best practice.”
Physics does not care about DEI. Pipes and plumbing do not respond to progressive rhetoric.
The report spells an institutional failure where the Water Utility was treated as a cash cow rather than a critical service. By the time the watermain first ruptured in June 2024, the “systemic gaps” created a literal flood.
The Panel’s findings avoid individual malice and do not allege corruption but document something perhaps more dangerous: a profound indifference dressed up as governance. You may call it “performative governance”, where the appearance of activity replaces technical know-how.
Incompetent leadership prized symbolism over substance. Raises, bonuses, and anti-racism funding over critical infrastructure spending.
For Calgary, the bill for twenty years of lazy leadership has finally come due. But Nenshi has absconded to Edmonton, and we are the ones left to pay for his failure.