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dollar return on every dollar we spend, which
is incredible.”
But over the past seven years, McLauchlin has
seen what he calls an “erosion” of investment
dollars from the provincial government, which
not only delays infrastructure upkeep but also
downloads public services onto municipalities.
“We never used to pay for policing, up until
five years ago, and now we're up to a million
dollars a year,” McLauchlin says. "So now,
basically four per cent of my budget is a policing
line item that was never there prior. These
are choices being made for us, not with us, so
that downloading is basically us picking up
responsibilities, financial and otherwise, for
someone else.”
Alberta’s rural bridges and roads are safe,
McLauchlin clarifies, but to his eye, squeezing
small town budgets while giving breaks to
already-ballooning industry budgets is simply
bad governance.
“They’ve issued three separate — I’ll use the
words ‘incentive programs,’ because that’s how
they’re couched — but those were unilateral,
provincially dictated decreases in oil and gas
taxes. My job is maintaining infrastructure, but
with all these other things [downloading], it's
hard for me to do that job.”
McLauchlin says the reports’ “call to action
is that we need to have these core investments”
to make the most of Alberta’s engineers, and
everyone quoted echoes that call.
“We have always done more with less,”
McLauchlin says. “We need to rely on innovation
and outside-the-box thinking. And there needs
to be a recognition by government of the
importance of the responsibility municipalities
have. We need to actually recognize that there
are different ways of doing things and make sure
we share that information as much as possible.
I think that's how we'll get through this. I think
that's how we'll take on the future.”
Water Emergency in Calgary
When Calgary’s Bearspaw South Feeder main
ruptured in June of 2024, the city entered a state
of emergency, which included water restrictions.
Underground, Associated Engineering was
investigating the cause of the break, and helping to
install technology to monitor the pipeline into the
future — preventing another catastrophe.
“This pipe is so critical. It's the most important
buried water pipe in Calgary,” says Duane Strayer,
Vice President, Urban Development with Associated
Engineering. There is a need, he says, for renewal of
Western Canada’s urban infrastructure — not only in
Calgary, but across the region as infrastructure ages.
Repair and renewal are critical when it comes to
water infrastructure — replacing an entire pipe is
disruptive to individuals and businesses and costs
governments money. While most Canadians take
their water infrastructure for granted, once it’s
gone, or limited like it was when the Bearspaw main
broke, more people realize just how critical this
infrastructure is.
“This feeder main [break] is a reminder for all of us
of our dependence on infrastructure that is buried,
that is out of sight, out of mind,” Strayer adds.
As trenchless technology becomes more common
in Canada, work can happen underground without
opening roads and disrupting daily life. After repairs
to the Bearspaw line were made and a new section
of pipe installed, the City put tethered and free-
swimming monitoring devices in the pipe, so the pipe
can detect any issues before they reach a crisis point.
“A robust asset management program includes
inspection and monitoring of buried assets, such
that potential problems can be identified before
another significant break occurs like what happened
in Calgary,” Strayer adds.
Buildings, water pipes, bridges, sidewalks —
this infrastructure is critical to our communities.
From Alberta’s largest cities to its many rural
communities, investing in retrofitting, repair and
renewal ensure communities continue to thrive. •
CONSULTING ENGINEERS OF ALBERTA
CONSULTING ENGINEERS OF ALBERTA
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