Over the past year, the Canadian Municipal Water Consortium hosted several conversations on topics of interest to municipal and utility leaders. These conversations took place through topic-specific Strategic Sharing Groups (SSGs). These SSGs are communities of practice that bring together municipalities and utilities to discuss challenges they are facing, as well as share knowledge and best practices to address those challenges.

Some of the conversations that took place focused on levels of service. The Levels of Service SSG was originally brought together to discuss the challenges municipalities and utilities were facing when trying to set levels of service. During a recent conversation that took place through this SSG, we found that many municipalities and utilities are compiling data. However, these municipalities and utilities are facing challenges with navigating data complexity. They are also facing challenges with establishing a data management and governance framework. For these reasons, we are transitioning the Levels of Service SSG into a new SSG that’s focusing on harnessing the power of data. This SSG will dive into data governance, as well as management and analytics strategies, that can help members increase the effectiveness of managing utilities.

Over the past year, we also convened conversations on how utilities can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In February, our Net-Zero SSG heard from Austin Alexander who is the vice president of sustainability and social impact at Xylem. She shared Xylem’s four steps that can be taken by water utilities for decarbonization. We learned that most utilities are at the early stage of establishing a corporate greenhouse gas inventory that will help them identify baseline conditions. This SSG will continue with biannual meetings to keep the conversation going.

In addition to this, the Canadian Municipal Water Consortium has hosted conversations around utility affordability. During a recent meeting of the Affordability SSG, staff from Seattle Public Utilities shared how they built a corporate culture of equity and the strategies they implemented to advance racial equity for their customers.

Looking ahead, the Canadian Municipal Water Consortium is bringing together municipal and utility leaders to discuss how we can service densifying areas of our cities. Managing drinking, waste, rain and stormwater sustainably within densifying urban areas is a wicked challenge. CWN is bringing Consortium Leaders together with thought leaders to explore this issue for an in-person meeting in May. This will set us up for a national panel discussion at Blue Cities from October 24-25, 2023 in Toronto.

We are also turning our attention to climate adaptation, specifically how stormwater management is advancing in Canada. A new SSG, starting in the fall, will explore different stormwater management programs, strategies, plans and nature-based solutions that can enable municipalities and utilities to adapt to a changing climate.