[01]live
file 01 · water
Calgary's water system
Withdrawals, per-capita demand, the 2024 Bearspaw rupture, the Water Efficiency Plan budget, regulatory ceilings.
9 fig · 7 claimsread
⌖ index · front001 / 001
Calgary’s numbers,
cited line by line.
calgarylens publishes Calgary public-interest data — water, budget, transit, infrastructure — drawn from primary sources and composed for readers who suspect they are being misled. Where a public claim has been made about these figures, we record the claim and respond to it on the same page as the underlying chart.
figures published
9
across 1 file
claims registered
7
quoted verbatim
headline figure▾ 37%
616 → 389
L / resident / day · 1997 → 2023
System per-capita water withdrawal fell 37% while population nearly doubled.
figure ii ↗−37%system per-capita demand, 1997 → 2023◆1,464 MLpeak day · 2025-07-12◆460k ML/yrBow River licence ceiling◆233k ML/yroperational cap to 2040◆$354–420MPlan envelope 2027–2030◆22%non-revenue water share◆9 figuresin File 01◆7 claimsregistered & responded to◆−37%system per-capita demand, 1997 → 2023◆1,464 MLpeak day · 2025-07-12◆460k ML/yrBow River licence ceiling◆233k ML/yroperational cap to 2040◆$354–420MPlan envelope 2027–2030◆22%non-revenue water share◆9 figuresin File 01◆7 claimsregistered & responded to◆
§02 method
How we’re composed.
Four rules, applied without exception. The aim is to produce charts that survive a hostile reader.
- 01rulePrimary sources only
Every figure cites the publisher (City of Calgary, StatsCan, ECCC), the title, the URL, the date retrieved. If we can't cite it, we don't publish it.
- 02ruleProvenance baked in
Citations are stored next to the data, not bolted onto the page. Each chart and the JSON file behind it carry the same source list.
- 03ruleClaims, not opinions
Public claims about Calgary are published verbatim with our response next to the chart. The reader compares — not just trusts us.
- 04rulePlain category names
Where a source uses loose phrasing ("leaks" for non-revenue water, "surveillance" for advanced metering), we use the technical term and explain the difference.
§03 in this issue
Files.
- [02]livefile 02 · climate
Calgary's climate emergency, what it actually did
Declaration directives, the 2023-2026 climate budget, $259M in grants secured, GHG progress against the 2005 baseline, and the September 2025 vote that left the declaration in force.
7 fig · 0 claimsread - [03]in prepfile 03 · tax
Where Calgary's property tax goes
Decomposition of the residential bill, transfers to the province, the operating budget line by line.
—drafting - [04]in prepfile 04 · transit
Ridership, recovery, and the Green Line
Pre- and post-pandemic ridership against capital spend; a record of every public claim about Green Line cost.
—drafting
§04 about
Composed in Calgary,
for Calgarians.
calgarylens is a small, independent publication. We do not accept advertising, do not solicit donations, and do not represent any party, slate, or campaign. The site is built and maintained by Pixeltree as a public-interest project.
Every JSON artefact behind a chart on this site is open and auditable. If you find a citation we’ve mishandled or a claim we’ve missed, please open an issue on the public repository.