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Sue Henry, the city’s emergency chief, just gave Calgary the good news many were waiting for.

“We are now able to lift all water restrictions effective immediately,” she told the briefing.

“At the end of the day today, the municipal emergency plan will be deactivated, and the emergency operations centre will close.”

Although the 18-day crisis is now over, the city will still be closely monitoring the struggling Bearspaw feeder main for future weaknesses.

City officials have begun today’s update on restoring the broken water main, as we wait to hear if water restrictions will be lifted.

You can watch that live above.

Mayor Jeromy Farkas, Calgary Emergency Management Agency chief Sue Henry and Infrastructure Services general manager Michael Thompson will speak and take questions.

I'm in Bowness and Montgomery neighbourhoods today to speak with people about what life has been like for the past two-and-a-half weeks. This is right in the affected zone, with the pipe rupture just blocks away. Thousands in the area were also under a boil-water advisory for nearly a week.

I spoke with one business in the area that’s seen numerous cancellations this month. Nick Yoo, manager of MaisonGlow Spa & Wellness, blames the snarled traffic along Bowness Road.

“They see that they’re going to be 15 minutes late because of the blockage and also because they are aware of the water break in the area … so they just cancel. And that’s really been putting a toll on our business,” said Yoo.

He said he hopes the city will announce the full re-opening of 16th Avenue N.W. And the end of water restrictions.

The easing of water restrictions could come as soon as today.

We can expect an announcement at this afternoon’s briefing from Calgary’s emergency management centre, according to a source familiar with the water situation.

On Thursday, Calgary officials said they were only one step away from restoring the troubled Bearspaw feeder main to full service, after successfully turning the system back on yesterday.

But the city has also cautioned that the end of restrictions could be gradual, as the city doesn’t want to overstress the concrete sections of the troubled pipe.

An independent panel investigated the Bearspaw south feeder main after the previous rupture in 2024. The final report laid out decades of missed opportunities to inspect the main, even though officials knew it was at risk to fail.

We compiled the key takeaways from that report:

The plan to twin a water delivery system is one of five priority projects that will see back-up supply lines laid along older sections of pipe to keep water flowing in the event of an issue.

Hi, I’m Jason Markusoff. I specialize in writing analysis about Alberta and Calgary news.

Yes, Calgary’s water use has tipped most days into the “red zone” that city officials say is “unsustainable” and may deeply stress our water supply and ability to douse fires.

But consider this: it’s never really gone far into the red — on the worst day (Jan. 5), water demand was only 2.8 per cent above where it needed to be to not be “unsustainable.”

In fact, from day to day there’s been strikingly little variance. Over two weeks, all daily usage has been within 20 million litres; that’s barely one dishwasher load per Calgary household.

It's been a struggle to keep daily water usage down since water restrictions began. Since Dec. 31, usage has only been within the city’s target range once. 

For 10 out of 16 days, usage has been in the red, unsustainable zone. 

Experts told us fatigue could be partially to blame, since Calgarians already dealt with months of restrictions after the same water main had a catastrophic break in 2024.

Final steps of water main repair underway with emergency crews on standby

City crews have begun the last steps of returning service to the Bearspaw south feeder main. Emergency and city crews will be set up near the repair site in case another break happens during the final phase.

City officials are set to give an update at 1 p.m. About restoring the Bearspaw south feeder main. It ruptured at the end of December, flooding a major road and stranding some people in their cars. 

The pipe that broke carries 60 per cent of the treated water used in Calgary and surrounding municipalities.

The city has been asking people to use less water wherever possible for the past two weeks, by taking shorter showers, flushing the toilet less, and only running dishwashers and washing machines when absolutely necessary.

Many, many Calgarians will be watching today to hear whether water restrictions will be coming to an end. The city has previously said the rules could be lifted by the weekend. 

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