April 2026 Vol. 81 No. 4
Features
Canada ramps up water infrastructure upgrades as system losses grow
By Eugene Gerden, Contributing Editor
(UI) — The government of Canada plans to take measures for the prevention of an active loss of water within the domestic water and wastewater networks caused by aging infrastructure, which remains highly vulnerable amid the ongoing climate change.
Given that Canada has a large land mass, much of which is located at high northern latitudes, warming across Canada has been about twice the global average, and in the Canadian Arctic, the warming has been about three times higher.
This factor poses a serious threat to the country’s water and wastewater network, especially since a significant part of the infrastructure is in acute need of modernization and technical renovation.
The current problems of the Canadian water infrastructure are confirmed by statistics. A study conducted by the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre at Brock University in Ontario estimates that 1.6 trillion gallons of water are lost annually in Canada. Such a situation is due to aging and deteriorating infrastructure. This is, however, lower than those in the U.S., where losses, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency, exceed 2.1 trillion gallons.
Most local analysts and representatives of the Canadian engineering community confirm that the problem is very serious, while the lack of any actions from the state may soon lead to a further deterioration of the situation.
“Climate resilience is the number-one challenge for water and wastewater infrastructure in Canada,” Ansel Bather, national vice president, Water & Wastewater at WSP, a well-known Canadian engineering firm, reported in an interview with the Canadian Globe and Mail paper.
According to Bather, with the increased frequency of intense rainfall events and severe storms, climate change is overwhelming the Canadian water and wastewater systems, requiring design future-ready solutions to protect residents and businesses, and ensure reliable service is maintained.
Extreme weather
Bather and other analysts said recent extreme weather events in various regions have highlighted the fragility of Canada’s water conveyance and stormwater systems.
For instance, in July 2024, a record four inches (100 millimeters) of rain fell in Toronto in three hours, overwhelming the city’s infrastructure, flooding many homes and businesses and causing $1 billion in damage. In November 2021, record-breaking rain in British Columbia triggered landslides and floods that caused damages of more than $7.5 billion, making it the costliest natural disaster in Canadian history.
Closely connected to the changing climate is the challenge posed by the growing water infrastructure deficit. “The systems are aging, and as a result, are prone to breakage,” Bather pointed out.
Official statistics from the local service Statistics Canada earlier reported that in 2022, the condition of 11 percent of water and wastewater assets across Canada was “poor” or “very poor.” Water leakage from the systems increased from 11 percent in 2011 to 17 percent in 2023, and recent major water transmission main ruptures in Montreal and Calgary produced flooding, power outages and loss of water service.
According to data of the Canadian government, Canada is rich in freshwater, holding 20 percent of the world’s freshwater reserves, and nearly 7 percent of the world's annual renewable water. This is due to its rivers and two million freshwater lakes, including the Great Lakes. Though Canada has large amounts of fresh water, it is unevenly distributed throughout the country.
In the meantime, authorities of the Canadian major provinces are aware of the existing problems and initiating measures for solutions. This is primarily in the form of planned major investments in modernization of water infrastructure.
For example, the government of Ontario, Canada’s most-populous province, has announced that it is investing an additional CAD$700 million to help 127 municipalities and communities upgrade and expand aging water infrastructure across the province. The funding comes from the province’s Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program (MHIP), which was increased to a total of $4 billion last year.
“As we continue to navigate economic uncertainty and unwarranted U.S. tariffs, our government is protecting Ontario by investing in critical infrastructure that drives growth, creates jobs and strengthens communities,” said Todd McCarthy, the local Acting Minister of Infrastructure.
For Ontario, implementation of these plans has a strategic importance, as further delays in modernization of the existing water infrastructure leads to serious delays in urbanization of the state and building of new housing and infrastructure.
Calgary challenges
In the meantime, authorities of Calgary, in oil-rich Alberta, are also looking for ways to attract additional funding in the modernization of the local water infrastructure. As the local Calgary Herald paper reported on March 3, citing the City Council, Calgary needs to add more than CAD $600 million to its budgets over the next two years to pay for required upgrades to water system infrastructure. This includes replacing the Bearspaw South Feeder Main – the heart of Calgary's water system. Calgary is the largest city in the province and third-largest in the country behind Toronto and Montreal.
The replacement pipe is now anticipated to be completed in December 2026, one year after the pipe's most recent catastrophic break that led to significant flooding in the city. In fact, Calgary has been bogged down by two catastrophic breaks in the Bearspaw since June 2024, both of which led to extended periods of water restrictions. The project is important even though it will lead to serious growth of water bills for residents.
Calgary lost a quarter of its treated water supply in 2024 due to leaky pipes, so the city has launched a program to address that problem more quickly. At the same time, the situation in other major Canadian cities remains also complex.
In fact, Canada already has its “Investing in Canada Plan,” which was launched in 2016, representing a CAD$180-billion, 12-year initiative to improve infrastructure. The plan focuses on enhancing water quality, increasing access to safe drinking water and improving efficiency of treatment facilities by 2030.
Share resources
Building reliable water and wastewater infrastructure (and modernization of existing ones), which is based on domestic water resources, has a strategic importance to Canada these days. This is also due to the issues of state security and the fact that the current cooperation with the U.S. in the field of water resource has been minimized. Earlier the U.S. has paused negotiations the Columbia River Treaty, while President Trump promised to solve California’s water shortages by tapping into British Columbia’s water resources.
“You have millions of gallons of water pouring down from the north with the snow caps and Canada, and all pouring down and they essentially have a very large faucet . . . You turn that, and all of that water aimlessly goes into the Pacific, and if you turned that back, all of that water would come right down here and into Los Angeles,” Trump said in the press conference at the end of 2024.
In his speech, Trump was referencing the Columbia River and its Rocky Mountain headwaters, which flows from British Columbia to Oregon and is governed by a treaty between the two countries. A project to bring this water to Los Angeles would cost billions of dollars.
In Canada, these U.S. actions do pose very real threats to shared water bodies such as the Great Lakes, the Columbia River and the St. Lawrence River. In general, Canadians have long been united in their opposition to exporting water. This is codified in the Transboundary Waters Protection Act, which bans large-scale removal of water from waterways shared with the United States.
As for British Columbia, the earlier forest fires within its territory (like those that devastated Australia at the end of 2010s), which were caused by climate change, led to serious problems to its water and wastewater network. Forest fires can deliver suspended solids and nutrients like dissolved organic carbon and bioavailable phosphorus that can lead to conditions that challenge drinking water treatment operations beyond their response capacities.
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