A six-person team tasked with examining how a massive water-main rupture happened in Calgary was paid more than $2.2 million for the nine-month review, with the panel’s chair being paid more than $1,000 an hour. The Bearspaw South Feedermain Independent Review Panel was assembled in the fallout of the massive pipe breaking in June 2024. Siegfried Kiefer was named as chair of the panel in December 2024, while his five panel members were announced in May 2025. The group delivered a report to council and the public on Jan. 7 of this year. Kiefer, who spent 38 years at ATCO, was paid $1.75 million for his work for the city as part of the panel, billed hourly. He was also paid an additional $36,000 for four months of work on the third-party advisory panel. “If council wants to lean on independent reviews, we need to come up with better governance and oversight solutions because Calgarians will not accept this kind of compensation model going forward,” said Coun. Jennifer Wyness. The Ward 2 representative said to have the vast majority of the panel’s budget going to a single member “demonstrates the important need for oversight and controls.” The other members—Michael Crothers, Gordon Engbloom, Nancy Foster, Bob Kerr and Stephen Stanley—were each paid a fixed fee of $79,600 for their work on the panel. They were also each paid an additional $18,000 for the four-month advisory group. The panel’s 86-page final report called for a fundamental overhaul of how the city manages, oversees and plans its water system, warning that without major reforms, similar disruptions remain likely. Including the group’s compensation for the panel and advisory work, along with other associated costs and staff, the total for the work equalled $2.39 million. “Of course, this (cost) is higher than I’d like to see, but given that this is a decision that was made in an emergency setting, by elected officials before my time, I have no choice but to accept that this has been done,” said Mayor Jeromy Farkas. “But I’m not going to accept that we’ll continue to pay out these types of large sums.” The mayor made the comments at an update on the current work to replace the feeder main. City officials say work on a new pipe is 95 per cent complete. To allow for final tie-ins and work to be completed, citywide water restrictions will be in place for about a month starting on Nov. 4.
