Dear CLG members,

You may be wondering about the status of Blue Cities 2020, given the COVID-19 situation and the decisions about many other events in Canada and elsewhere. Based on the latest information from the Government of Canada, we are still planning for Blue Cities 2020 to take place on May 7-8 at the Hilton Toronto, but with adjustments to the program and format as needed to accommodate changing conditions, including travel restrictions.

We are monitoring the situation daily and are guiding our decisions on how to proceed by following the advice of the Public Health Agency of Canada and Toronto Public Health. Protecting public health remains paramount in our decisions and we will continue to update our Consortium members and Blue Cities speakers as the situation evolves over the next two months. In the spirit of constant growth and innovation, we are exploring the potential to use different formats if needed to accommodate changing conditions.

If you are no longer able to attend in person due to work directives, restrictions or personal decisions, please let us know so that we can adjust as needed, including finding ways to keep you integrated in the discussions. We will be updating the CWN and Blue Cities websites regularly with the status of Blue Cities and other ways that COVID-19 may impact our work.

We understand that during this situation Canadian municipalities and utilities responsible for the provision of essential water management services will likely experience additional strain on your resources and staffing. In the members area of the website, we’ve created a folder in the documents library for COVID-19 water and sanitation materials. We have filed the factsheets that we sent to you earlier from the Water Environment Federation, World Health Organization, Water Research Australia and Water Services Association of Australia. The Global Water Research Coalition has also published a factsheet, which has been posted on CWN’s main website and in the members area documents library. I’ve also attached a copy here for your reference. Please feel free to let us know how we can support, including facilitating connections to resources or peer-sharing.

If you have any questions or concerns over the coming weeks, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly, or to Sandra or Kim.

Bernadette Conant
CEO  |  Canadian Water Network