Calgary city councillors voted Tuesday to chip in for a new regional sewer line that will enable more growth, both locally and in a neighbouring municipality.
The request from administration, which asked for approval of $51 million in additional borrowing authority to support construction of an expanded wastewater line to Airdrie, was unanimously endorsed by council’s executive committee on Tuesday.
“When Airdrie succeeds, Calgary succeeds, and vice versa, and that’s what this unanimous vote really represented,” said Mayor Jeromy Farkas.
“It’s how Calgary shows we’re hunting as a pack with our regional partners.”
The capital request is coming before November budget deliberations to help advance work on the Nose Creek Sanitary Trunk extension, a $114-million project being led by the City of Airdrie. According to a city report, the new, seven-kilometre line would replace an existing, smaller pressurized sanitation pipe.
Calgary has supplied Airdrie, its largest regional customer, with bulk water and wastewater services since 1976. The current bilateral master servicing agreement came into effect Jan. 1, 2015, and will last until 2035.
Airdrie’s municipal government, which will lead and manage the entire project, is contributing $62 million, or 55 per cent of capital costs.
Last summer, the Alberta government announced a $50-million contribution toward the same project. At the time, provincial officials noted the pipeline will eliminate the need for Airdrie to build its own wastewater treatment facility.
A statement from a City of Calgary spokesperson Tuesday noted the capital budget request is separate from the work supported through the province’s funding and is not covered by that $50-million grant.
“This project is important for ensuring that the region has the infrastructure needed to support continued growth and development,” the statement reads.
Airdrie experiences explosive growth in last four years
In a news conference last year, City of Airdrie officials said the sanitary trunk extension comes at a pivotal time for the municipality, which has grown in population by 25 per cent since 2022. With a population of roughly 90,000 people, Airdrie is now Alberta’s fifth largest city, after Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge and Red Deer.
The expanded wastewater line will contribute to more housing development and has a projected economic return value of $45 billion, the City of Airdrie claims.
“As well, the project is an efficient and coordinated effort with the City of Calgary by building regional partnerships to share in infrastructure facilities,” a previous Airdrie news release stated.
The Airdrie water tower is pictured on March 28, 2025.
A letter to Farkas from his counterpart in Airdrie, Mayor Heather Spearman, called the wastewater line “essential infrastructure” to serve the city’s continued growth.
“We recognize that regional infrastructure challenges require collaborative solutions,” she wrote. “We remain committed to working closely with Calgary and other regional partners to advance this critical initiative, and we appreciate the opportunity to partner with you on shared priorities.”
A similar letter from Horacio Galanti, Airdrie’s chief administrative officer, was sent to his Calgary counterpart, David Duckworth.
“We recognize that the $51M investment represents a significant financial commitment by the City of Calgary at a time when infrastructure needs and costs are at an all-time high,” he wrote. “We appreciate Calgary’s willingness to advance this regional infrastructure priority.”
Sanitation pipe will enable growth in northeast Calgary: report
While the project primarily serves Airdrie, the sanitary trunk will also enable more development in northeast Calgary, according to the city. Its report notes the extended wastewater line would support an additional 43,000 people within the Nose Creek area structure plan, which encompasses mostly undeveloped land north of 144th Avenue N.E.
“1970s mayor Rod Sykes called the Nose Creek an open sewer, and that led to this pipe we have now that carries the wastewater from Airdrie to Calgary,” said Ward 3 Coun. Andrew Yule.
“This just helps us increase its capacity so the growth in both north-central Calgary and Airdrie can be facilitated.”
Approving the capital budget request now, nearly seven months before the 2027 budget is formally deliberated, allows Calgary to enter into a construction agreement with Airdrie this quarter, enabling construction to begin this summer, the report adds.
Calgary’s costs toward the conduit would be recovered through self-supported debt in the form of wastewater rates paid by regional customers and off-site levies, when the lands in the Nose Creek area structure plan are developed and the project is added to the city’s offsite levy bylaw, the report states.
On Tuesday, city officials told the committee that of Calgary’s 45 per cent ownership stake, the city will recover 80 per cent of its capital costs through regional utility rates.
Any construction cost overruns would be split proportionately between Calgary and Airdrie, they said, under the same 45-55 split.
The design of the Nose Creek Sanitary Trunk Extension is nearing completion, and Airdrie‘s municipal government has already begun the pre-construction procurement process, according to the report.
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