The lion’s share of payment for the Bearspaw South feeder main independent review panel went to the panel chair, Siegfried Kiefer, as costs for the panel were made public.

A cost memo made public Wednesday afternoon just before the latest update on the Bearspaw South feeder main replacement showed that the panel chair was paid roughly $1.8 million of the $2.3 million invoiced for the project.

Chair Kiefer was paid an hourly rate for the bulk of that payment, with it accounting for $1.752 million of the panel work cost. Other panel members — Michael Crothers, Gordon Engbloom, Nancy Foster, Bob Kerr and Stephen Stanley — each received a fixed fee of $79,600.

Payments were also made for advisory group work, totalling $126,000. Kiefer received $36,000 for that work, while Crothers, Wayne Taylor, Foster, Kerr and Stanley each received $18,000.

The release of the detailed Bearspaw panel costs was driven by Ward 2 Coun. Jennifer Wyness, who said Wednesday, after the costs were released, that when she first saw the cost memo, she was “appalled.”

“It’s a failure of governance on one person getting hourly and then everyone else having a fixed rate fee,” she said.

“The fact that there was, by nature of setting up an independent review panel… we had very little controls in place.”

Wyness, who has been outspoken on the city’s plans to hike water rates by 75 per cent over the next four years, said this money could have been put towards the water utility itself. She noted that the Associated Engineering report, which covered the technical portion of the Bearspaw ruptures, was far less costly.

“We have to be very controlled about how we approve money to try and bring down the costs of water rates for Calgarians and businesses, and so this is why this number is going to be very hard for Calgarians to swallow.”

Paying for quality: Coun. Jamieson

Mayor Jeromy Farkas separated himself from decisions made by the prior council on compensation for the Bearspaw independent review panel. He said the amount paid was for roughly 17 months of work, and that they are actively work on the panel recommendations. The above city document notes that it was for nine months of work.

“That said, what we’ve identified is legitimate concerns around compensation for panels like this,” he said.  

“It had never been done before, and what you’ll see reflected in the Water Utility Oversight Board, the structure that we’ve set up to oversee the City of Calgary’s water operations going forward, we have hard caps in terms of the compensation, not hourly rates.”

The mayor also said that Calgary paid private sector rates for the work, and that’s what the cost reflects. He said it’s comparable to the amount the province is paying for its review of Calgary’s review of the Bearspaw south feeder main ruptures.

Ward 12 Coun. Mike Jamieson said he understands that many Calgarians could view this report as expensive. He said that the city had nothing similar to benchmark the cost against.

“There are lessons learned here, and I think that they’ve got a, I think a benchmark now to go off of in the future for other departments or other problems that need expertise,” he said.

“At the end of the day, I really think you’ve got to pay for quality, you’ve got to pay for expertise.”

Meanwhile, the City of Calgary also announced that the Bearspaw South feeder main replacement is 95 per cent complete. Construction to begin the connection of the new feeder main begins on Nov. 4, and along with it are Stage 4 outdoor water restrictions.

“This is an important milestone and brings us another step closer to having the new feeder main in service by the end of the year,” said Michael Thompson, Chief Operating Officer of Water.

While the feeder main is out of service, the City of Calgary will rely on the Glenmore Water Treatment plant for the bulk of the region’s water supply.

They will also take the opportunity to make six additional repairs on the 1,500 millimetre feeder main located on Parkdale Boulevard and Memorial Drive NW.