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It’s About the Water! 

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Water is one of the most important and present substance in our lives. It drives the weather and shapes our geography. It is a secret ingredient in such things as computer chips, and makes MRI machines and your S (formerly Twitter) account perform. Not to mention it is used in your blue jeans, and those ‘can’t-do-without’ cell phones. We even vacation in water, so much of everything in our modern world is somehow related or supported by water. It is one of our natural resources and is simply everywhere. As my wise veterinarian pointed out ‘water never leaves the planet it just moves around.’ As humans, we are mostly made up of water; some genius has even worked it out that men are typically 60 per cent water and women 55 per cent. 

More than 100 years ago, cities started separating fresh water from sewage disposal, and utilities discovered that basic sand filters and chlorination could clean and safely disinfect water supplies. It is such a part of lives we have stopped thinking about water. Our home water bill is substantially less than our cable/Netflix bill. Reality is jolted, of course, when a water main breaks and we realize that while water is virtually free, the infrastructure that moves it around costs a lot and doesn’t last forever. Which leads to the topic of infrastructure. If Calgary welcomed 120,000 new people in 2023 at roughly three toilet flushes each and one shower per day, we just added 360,00 toilet flushes and 120,000 showers per day. With an agenda to add more high-rise dwellings downtown where our oldest infrastructure primarily exists, more time needs to be put into ensuring it can perform. Clearly more checks and balances are in order prior to more multi-building projects. 

Infrastructure is expensive, and the adding machines are currently busy figuring out our latest costs and how or who will pay. We all agree more taxes are out, so let’s explore other options. 

Perhaps it is time to introduce private and public sharing of costs, but then both must also share in the profits. Maybe new water plants should be private rather than taxpayer-funded. Developers have been paying ‘lot levies’ for years into a growing bank account billed as a ‘rainy day fund.’ Where is that? Those who benefit from the use of infrastructure have never directly paid for it so would resist doing so now I suspect. I might have to run for shelter by suggesting that maybe the beneficiaries, homeowners and commercial building owners also have to also contribute a pro-rata share over time. 

A USA innovation is designing a revenue bond or city bond opportunity that will be managed like a real investment with profit sharing by investors. Patient capital like insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds and pension funds have been bundled and syndicated along with private investors. 

What we ‘do not need’ is a $5M+, five-year study, to find a solution! We need a mixture of smart people, business people and financial people putting their heads together and producing a plan – and quickly. It can’t just be imagined by City Hall by adding 500 more people to the payroll. There are a lot of smart taxpayers out there with good ideas! 

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