As far into the future as you can imagine or plan for. That's the foreseeable future. Now isn't that some sort of blue sky optimism?
That's how the Calgary Mayor sees the water supply repair - going well into the foreseeable future.
I have a theory that their low taxes have made the infrastructure failure a catastrophe. That they haven't been supporting their infrastructure with sufficient taxes. Why don't I find out if that is fact or fantasy.
As I read the critical analysis of the issue, it appears that the problems came from poor management - from relying on "modelling" rather than inspection to determine the status of the pipes. Then there's the changing stories from senior bureaucrats who claimed that the pipe was only half-way through its life. That was disproved by other experts who indicate it is at the end of its life. And finally the Mayor who spent a lot of time chastising the locals for not doing enough to reduce water usage.
And what about taxes? Do they come into play here? I don't think so. I think the story is more a cautionary tale. If you know the broken water pipe story and the many layers of poor management, one would suggest young people think before moving to Calgary Alberta to pay lower federal, no provincial and low municipal taxes.
Here's the tax story - doesn't it seem so attractive to live there?
Alberta has the lowest taxes - federal and provincial - of all the Canadian provinces. They like us to know this all the time.
"Alberta has the lowest taxes for a few reasons, one being that Alberta has the highest basic personal amounts in Canada. Alberta's basic personal amount is $19,369, and in comparison, the federal basic amount is $14,398. So, if you live in Alberta, you'd only be taxed on your income when you make more than $19,369.
Another contributing factor is that Alberta doesn't have a provincial sales tax. This means that residents and businesses don't pay an additional tax on top of the federal goods and services (GST) tax of 5%. "
Municipal rates are more complicated as they are based on property values. These vary from city to city and province to province. Calgary's property tax rates remain the third lowest among urban municipalities in Alberta. Its average tax bill for homeowners was about $3,661 in 2023, the fourth lowest in Canada. Montreal had the lowest taxes per average home at $2,754 for 2023.
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