I find myself a little bit fascinated with the story of the main water feeder pipe break in Calgary, mostly because of what it exposes about municipal politics in this country. Council was presented with a report today that shows that they were warned about this twenty years ago, and that nobody did anything about it during all that time. Twenty. Years. The report was commissioned after the 2024 pipe break, and here it is, broken again, because they didn’t finish the job.

Here is the independent panel's timeline of how risk was identified with the Bearspaw Feeder Main 20 years before it ruptured in June 2024.

— Adam MacVicar (@adammacvicar.bsky.social) 2026-01-07T21:19:54.037Z

City councils didn’t prioritize it because they have been so preoccupied with keeping property taxes as low as possible that these kinds of major infrastructure projects continue to be underfunded and overlooked. City staff apparently have unclear reporting structures so nobody becomes responsible for this kind of an issue, and the author of the report was saying he wouldn’t lay the blame on any one individual or era of council. “This problem existed. It repeated itself. It did not surface to the right level of decision-making. And so it’s very difficult, in my opinion, to lay specific blame on any individual. We had a process weakness that was not corrected.”

The thing is, we have a lot of city councils in this country who are also focused solely on keeping their property taxes down, and placating NIMBYs, and we there is other critical infrastructure in this country that is bound for failure. Councils adopt a learned helplessness when city staff don’t do their due diligence about these kinds of failures, and vanishingly few councils are doing their jobs in ensuring these kinds of issues are actually being dealt with. This could be a warning for other cities to take a second look and ensure that they are doing the inspections and maintenance that was ignored here…or they will rely on normalcy bias and leave it for later because clearly it won’t happen to them, right? I have a feeling I know which is more likely.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia attacked two seaports in the Odesa region on Wednesday, while late-night strikes knocked out power in two southeaster regions.

Good reads:

• Mark Carney’s office has confirmed that he will be visiting China next week, followed by a stop at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
• Sources™ say that Carney plans to have an in-person meeting with the premiers in Ottawa on January 29th, to be preceded by a dinner the night before.
• The government has confirmed that 25 out of a potential maximum of 200 guns were collected in the buyback pilot programme in Cape Breton.
• Public Safety believes that as many as 2500 individuals and businesses will be required to register as foreign agents once the system is in place.
• The head of the RCAF says that the service is a period of growth, and part of the challenge is ensuring they have the personnel for the new capabilities.
• NSIRA is reviewing the governance and use of digital asbestos by the country’s various intelligence services.
• The former Canadian ambassador to Venezuela is critical that the government is parroting the American lines about fresh elections when they had a winner in 2024.
• Here is a deeper dive into the situation around the American threats over Greenland, and the fact that this could be the death knell for NATO.
• Some First Nations chiefs are alarmed that the government doesn’t appear to include source water protection in their upcoming clean water legislation.
• NDP MP Lori Idlout says she has been approached by Liberals and constituents to cross the floor, but she has decided not to (at least for the moment).
• NDP leadership hopefuls are in the final push to meet fundraising targets before the January 28th deadline.
• Kevin Carmichael lays out the fact that Canadians need to actually make the choice to stand up to the Americans, even though we remain preoccupied with affordability.
• Fen Osler Hampson explains the ways in which Canada’s China policy is going to be dependent on the way things shake out with the US.
• John Michale McGrath boggles at the fact that the Ontario Liberals still haven’t even announced their leadership process, months later.
• Stephen Saideman points out that nothing the Trump administration is doing conforms to realism, particularly as it comes to their Greenland plan.

Odds and ends:

Karoline Leavitt Explains Why Canada Will Be Conqueredyoutu.be/TnHpZw9qPTY

— Clare Blackwood (@clareblackwood.bsky.social) 2026-01-07T21:03:21.784Z

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