The Canadian Municipal Water Consortium’s newest Strategic Sharing Group on affordability in the context of pandemic-related impacts and trends kicked off on April 8, 2022. The objective of this meeting was to share experiences related to addressing affordability challenges at the community level. The meeting also explored next steps for unpacking these challenges and addressing them in a meaningful way. This was achieved through a structured sharing of responses to key, high-level questions posed by CWN. The specific themes that emerged from the group’s discussion were:
- Approaches for better understanding affordability at the local level.
- Including: Data analysis, metering programs, research studies and affordability as a percentage of household income.
- Barriers to understanding affordability at the local level.
- Including: Access to data and privacy restrictions, lack of political will and two-tier nature of some regions.
- Actions and programs adopted to address affordability at the community level.
- Including: Siloed decision-making, capital cost of initial investment, risk-aversion, building the business case, generating awareness, and coordination and engagement.
The terms of participation, primer, agenda and meeting capture are now available on the Affordability Strategic Sharing Group webpage. Please treat these Strategic Sharing Group documents as confidential and use discretion when sharing with others in your organization.
The next meeting will be held in September 2022. For more information or to join this group, contact Sandra Cooke, Municipal Program Director, at [email protected]