Infrastructure failure and cybersecurity threats top list of risks for City of Calgary

After Calgary ended last year with another catastrophic water main break, an increased risk of infrastructure failure is set to be up for discussion again among council members this week.

A year-end report assessing the risks the City of Calgary faces found its capital infrastructure hit the most critical level on its assessment scale, indicating an "almost certain" likelihood of failure with severe impacts. The report's findings mark an "urgent need" for the city to better understand which parts of its critical infrastructure are in poor condition, and which represent a single point of failure within their respective systems.

The report arrives less than a month after Calgary’s second catastrophic water main break in 18 months led to significant flooding in the city’s northwest and weeks of water restrictions.

Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal said the report’s timing couldn’t be better, because it can inform council's work to map out infrastructure funding over the next four years.

“This is an opportunity to start looking at all that going into a four-year budget cycle,” said Dhaliwal.

The report notes that 11 per cent of Calgary’s assets are in poor or very poor condition, with deferred maintenance, limited investment, climate change and severe weather contributing to some infrastructure elements deteriorating, as well as service disruptions and safety concerns becoming more likely.

Dhaliwal said he wants a clearer, complete picture from city administration about which infrastructure pieces specifically are at risk.

“I struggle with this [report] because it’s just a little point on the heat map moving from orange to red. I want to know holistically the granular information behind it,” said Dhaliwal.

Ward 4 Coun. DJ Kelly said the report should indicate to the city that it needs to take action. He said after years of focusing on growth, the time has come for the city to invest more in neighbourhoods where infrastructure like roads, sidewalks or recreation facilities are falling behind.

“Hopefully we don’t need any additional motivation to get moving on the water infrastructure side,” said Kelly. “But I do hope that this particular report also provides some additional concern to some of the council members related to our other infrastructure.”

The other "extensive" risk in the city's new report is technological disruption.

Kelly said he’s unsurprised cybersecurity risks rate so highly, because the city's responsibility to communicate with residents can make it a target for bad actors.

The report states the City of Calgary's rate of clicking on malicious links between May and August 2024 was up to 15 times higher than other regional or similar-sized organizations.

“The same thing that all of us are facing at home in terms of don’t click that link that was emailed to you? Well, the City of Calgary gets an awful lot of those emails,” said Kelly.