Welcome to the summer edition of News Splash. I was pleased to welcome many of you to Blue Cities last month, which was a great reminder of the exceptional talent that exists in the Canadian water sector, as well as the enormous challenges that we face collectively.

Thought leadership from Kelly Lendsey, Chief Transformation Officer of Luminary and CEO of Indigenous Works. Kelly delivered a keynote on inclusion during Blue Cities 2025.

CWN connected with Alicia Fraser, General Manager of Infrastructure and Water Services for the Capital Regional District in Victoria, B.C., for this edition's Water Leader Spotlight.

Carl Yates concludes his term as Chair on June 20, 2025. We thank Carl for his deep commitment, wise counsel and leadership during his many years of service. We are pleased to announce executive appointments for the roles of Board chair, vice chair and treasurer.

Carl Yates was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at Blue Cities 2025. CWN thanks Carl for his many years of service to CWN as Board chair, director and founding member of the Municipal Water Consortium.

Members from CWN’s Municipal Water Consortium met in May to discuss the escalating cost of water infrastructure projects, a widespread and persistent challenge impacting utilities across the country. CWN has captured these insights in a new report.

Organizations need to understand (to the degree possible) known unknowns and unknown unknowns to create effective risk mitigation and resiliency plans. Water utilities around the globe are turning to adaptive planning.

Our peer learning program on wastewater-based surveillance wraps up with six additions to the public health Knowledge-to-Action series. CWN thanks the National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases for their collaboration.

Three inaugural CWN awards were presented at Blue Cities 2025 to honour outstanding individuals who are shaping the future of water in Canada. Congratulations to the recipients!

Nicola Crawhall and other members of the Global Water Research Coalition met in Cape Town, South Africa in March. Five strategic issues were identified as priorities for 2025-2026. CWN will participate in a GWRC working group on biosolids management.

In April, Canadians elected Mark Carney as the new Prime Minister. With this transition in leadership, the federal government has set new priorities that will directly impact municipalities, particularly in areas of housing, infrastructure and urban development.

In May, CWN hosted water leaders at Blue Cities, our flagship event for the municipal water sector. The benefit of bringing 200 smart, experienced people together to focus on the big challenges is that they come up with great insights and strategies.

Our Blue Cities session, Planning in the Face of Uncertainty, introduced the Canadian water sector to adaptive planning, a globally emerging approach to decision-making to address future uncertainty and accompanying risks.

This timely panel discussion explored how Canadian water utilities can lead the charge toward net zero water operations. Municipal leaders, private sector innovators and global experts shared practical strategies for reducing GHGs in the water sector.

The last 5-10 years have seen significant advances in new molecular methods that more precisely detect what is in our water and measure health impacts. These methods can help municipalities rapidly trace and identify sources of contaminants, improve beach quality and determine impacts from sewage discharge.