With 123 pages worth of reports from the last 20 years on the desk, Moose Jaw City Council once again debated the future of our cast iron water pipes.

Councillor Brian Swanson says the collection of reports shows the oldest of the pipes in Moose Jaw have never been touched, in favour of replacing newer pipe that didn't last as long as it should have.

"In 30 days, 31 days, the City of Moose Jaw will have 40,000 metres of water line that is now 100 years old or older and somewhere in these reports there's a statement saying that those water lines have reached their life expectancy." said Swanson Monday night. "But what these reports show is that the lines that are getting replaced are all from more recent work."

Swanson pointed to the reports from the mid 2000's as saying the water lines from the 50's and 60's were getting replaced because they were not lasting as long as they were expected to, while the older lines were being left alone.

Swanson estimated that between the two major pipe projects, there's an estimated 75,000 metres of water lines that need to be replaced at a value of at least $75 million. Swanson suggested that past city officials fail residents by not making this a higher priority and by ignoring the facts.

Councillor Heather Eby agreed that they are facing a very difficult situation but disagreed with Swanson saying it isn't all on the shoulders of past councillors. She says the warning signs might have been muted due to the wording of certain reports.

"The most interesting comment that I found was on page 41 of the 123 page document, 'The most economical replacement strategy is to delay replacement until the entire useful life has been extracted from the assets.' No wonder they didn't do anything different."

In reading the reports, Eby says she never got a sense of urgency but of course, knowing what we know now, the warning signs were there.

Finger pointing aside, Councillor Swanson said City Council will have to come clean at some point and explain exactly how they are going to pay for the work that needs to be done on the waterlines.  Using his estimates of $75 million worth of work to be done, he says it translates into one massive tax increase for the citizens of Moose Jaw.

"I believe it would be a 28% tax increase and I would vote for a 28% tax increase to solve our water line issues if it was predicated on a zero increase in the operating budget."

Like the other councillors around the desk, Mayor Deb Higgins agrees that the situation needs to be dealt with but pointing fingers is not the solution, saying that you can't go back and change what past councils have done.

And when it comes to paying for the work, she disagreed with Swanson when it comes to a mass tax increase to pay for the work, arguing that the city needs a plan in place before they go to taxpayers. "It's fine to say that we need a huge tax increase but residents deserve to see what the plan is and the progress that we hope to make with the underground infrastructure."

"You can't just raise taxes and say we hope to get this done."

Higgins pointed out that this council has been setting aside more funding than previous councils to address the infrastructure needs of the city but they can't find contractors to do the work at what they believe is an acceptable price, adding to the problems they face.