Alberta NDP leader accuses Smith’s UCP of playing blame game over Calgary water main

Leader of the Alberta NDP Naheed Nenshi speaks to media about the Alberta 2025 budget in Edmonton, on Thursday Feb. 27, 2025.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

Alberta Opposition NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi says Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party government is playing politics with the failure of a key water main in Calgary by pointing the finger of blame at him.

“Would the premier be blaming me if I wasn’t leader of the Alberta New Democrats today? Of course not,” Nenshi said Tuesday, responding to questions from reporters.

“They’re still on this fishing expedition because they’re looking for political gain.”

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Last week, Smith’s government announced it would conduct a review dating back two decades into decisions and oversight on the Bearspaw South Feeder Main.

Municipal Affairs Minister Dan Williams has asked for reams of related documents to be delivered to the province by the end of the month.

The feeder main supplies 60 per cent of the treated water to the city of 1.6 million. Late last month, it ruptured for the second time in less than two years, prompting a renewed round of water restrictions for residents.

Earlier this month, city council received an independent panel report on the 2024 break. It broadly blamed the failure on two decades of underinvestment, lack of communication and co-ordination, as well as insufficient knowledge of the risk of pipe failures.

Nenshi was Calgary’s mayor during part of the time when, the report says, projects to inspect and perform maintenance on the line were deferred for other priorities.

Commenting on the report, Nenshi said senior city staffers and politicians were not aware of the water main issues and that they were cleared of fault.

“Senior decision makers and politicians were not informed of this stuff, and to me that is actually a problem,” he said.

Smith said earlier this month that severe floods in Calgary in 2013, caused by heavy rainfall, should have led the city to do widespread investigations of its water system.

“And you have to ask the question, well, ‘Who was the mayor after the floods of 2013 until he decided to retire?’ And that was Naheed Nenshi,” Smith said.

Smith posted on social media Tuesday that she had met with the chair of the review panel and “findings point to serious systemic failures, including unclear accountability that allowed known risks to remain unresolved for years.”

“Our government will work with the City of Calgary to ensure accountability and relevant recommendations are acted on,” the post said.

Both sides are gearing up a provincial election scheduled for October 2027.

With the NDP dominating Edmonton and the UCP doing the same in rural areas, Calgary is expected to be a crucial electoral battleground.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 20, 2026.

Dayne Patterson, The Canadian Press