Canada’s Municipal Water Sector: Key Trends, Needs, Leading Practices and Innovations
Canadian Water Network, Federation of Canadian Municipalities (2018-2020)
Challenge
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ (FCM) Green Municipal Fund (GMF) is a unique program that provides funding and knowledge services to communities who are undertaking projects to improve air, water or soil, or reduce greenhouse gas emissions. To effectively support Canadian municipalities in implementing appropriate and sustainable solutions, the GMF needs to remain relevant to municipalities, anticipate trends in the industry, and share innovation and best practices.
The municipal water sector has seen a number of changes over the past five years. To help meet its goals, FCM asked CWN to report on current water management trends, issues and best practices within the sector, to analyze the drivers and needs of the sector, and identify opportunities for innovation.
Project
With financial support from FCM, CWN led a qualitative research project in 2019 on key municipal trends, needs, best practices and innovations with the potential to achieve improved environmental stewardship, economic and social benefits, and greenhouse gas reductions in the water sector. The research synthesized current knowledge and engaged stakeholders from across the water sector to validate and augment this knowledge. The project culminated in a final report that addressed FCM’s key research questions related to water sector issues and needs, and identified best practices, innovative solutions, implementation challenges and key opportunities where GMF-supported projects can achieve significant impact. A snapshot of this report is now available.
Outputs
- Water Management Trends in Canadian Municipalities – A Snapshot
- FCM will host a national webinar on Thursday, March 19, 2020 from 1:30-2:30 pm EST with Bernadette Conant, CEO, Canadian Water Network and William Shea, Director, Distribution and Collection at Toronto Water. This webinar is free to attend – register now.
