Bell: Smith UCP blames 'delusional' Nenshi for Calgary water pipe woes |
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Bell: Smith UCP blames 'delusional' Nenshi for Calgary water pipe woes
NDP Leader and former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi says he's not to blame for the city's water pipe fiasco, a Danielle Smith UCP cabinet minister thinks otherwise
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Calgary city hall is doing everything they possibly can to avoid pointing the finger at anyone for the city’s ongoing water pipe fiasco, a screwup many long years in the making.
Bell: Smith UCP blames 'delusional' Nenshi for Calgary water pipe woes Back to video
Accountability is not in the Calgary city hall dictionary.
Butt covering is standard operating procedure at the place we sadly call the Big Blue Playpen and so far see no reason for dropping the nickname.
Devin Dreeshen, one of the heavy hitters in Premier Danielle Smith’s cabinet, is not interested in forgetting about the past, as if the past has nothing to do with the present and the latest water pipe shutdown with more to come.
Dreeshen laughs when Naheed Nenshi, Calgary’s mayor for 11 long years and now the Alberta NDP leader, says he’s in the clear.
None of this water pipe mess is his fault. It just happened. It’s apparently nobody’s fault.
“He’s delusional. His recollection of the past is delusional, completely delusional,” says Dreeshen.
“Edmonton’s water pipes aren’t exploding but Calgary’s are.”
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Deep thinkers have told us city hall for years didn’t take the risk to Calgary’s water system seriously enough though they knew about the risk.
Decisions about the water pipe delivering water to most Calgarians were made, the wrong decisions.
There was “an environment of unclear accountability,” according to a recent probe paid for by city taxpayers.
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But, on Monday, Mayor Jeromy Farkas tells us he is not going to throw anyone under the bus.
Farkas says if we need to hold someone responsible he will take responsibility.
This is a ridiculous and meaningless gesture intended to shield those who are responsible and should face the music.
But then, on Monday, Farkas did applaud the leadership of former mayor Jyoti Gondek.
Naturally, in this debacle one person gaining attention is Nenshi.
For 11 of the past 15 years, as the water pipe became a greater and greater risk, Nenshi was the mayor.
When Nenshi was the mayor his followers believed he the smartest person in any room and when Nenshi was the mayor a majority on council thought he walked on water.
If the buck didn’t stop with him where did it stop?
Why is this line of questioning important? One reason is because Nenshi wants to be the next premier of Alberta.
Late last week Nenshi tells newshounds city hall politicians in every single study have been “completely exonerated.”
“The pipe exploded. It wasn’t leaking in advance. It wasn’t collapsing in advance. It exploded one day. There was nothing you could have done to prevent it,” says Nenshi.
The city could have built a new pipe but Nenshi says in 2015 with the economy slumping they just wanted to keep things affordable and the old pipe was working fine.
Nenshi does say they probably should have put in a new pipe but that would have led to increases in people’s water bills.
Then Nenshi points a finger at the provincial government of the day.
“We had a provincial government that wasn’t funding infrastructure at that time,” says Nenshi.
Is the NDP leader talking about the PC government of former premier Jim Prentice or the NDP government of former premier Rachel Notley?
Whichever government Nenshi is talking about, Calgary’s water woes have nothing to do with Nenshi.
He is washing his hands of the matter.
Nenshi says the Smith government is on a “huge fishing expedition” looking to blame him.
The UCP government recently told Calgary city hall to turn over all their documents about the water pipe situation.
Nenshi says they have found “literally nothing” linking him to the mismanagement in the water system.
Methinks they haven’t taken the magnifying glass to all the city documents just yet.
The former Calgary mayor and current NDP leader sounds like he’s feeling victimized.
“I just keep asking Calgarians a simple question: Would the UCP be spending so much time and energy blaming me if I wasn’t the leader of the opposition?”
Many of us want answers no matter where the road to the truth leads, again a road not found on city hall maps.
Dreeshen is not surprised there are those who do not want to take a stroll down memory lane.
“Why don’t some people want to learn about the past? I think there are people in the past who contributed to this situation who are now in current politics hoping it just goes away and they are not accountable.”
Nenshi believes the UCP just want to score political points and he feels they are not scoring any.
Recent polls on the Smith vs. Nenshi race, including the nosecount in my last column, tell a different story.
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