Across the country, cities are experiencing challenges such as unprecedented population growth, limited space for development, the need for redevelopment and a changing climate. In addition, many water, wastewater and stormwater systems are near or past the capacity for which they were designed. Densification, growing populations and extreme weather events are impacting these systems.

The merits of taking a co-benefits approach have been widely acknowledged across sectors by economic, environmental and utility experts. Planning with co-benefits in mind provides opportunities to increase system and operational resilience and efficiency and financial sustainability both within and across sectors. In 2018, Canadian Water Network (CWN) appointed a national expert panel to review Canada’s challenges and opportunities in addressing contaminants in wastewater. The panel defined co-benefits as follows: Co-benefits arise when actions designed to achieve one objective, such as urban flood mitigation measures, also benefit another objective, such as reducing contaminant loading to receiving waters (CWN, 2018).

Although taking a co-benefits approach to planning can provide opportunities to increase system and operational resilience, efficiency and financial sustainability, it requires collaboration both within and across sectors — a concept that may be counter-intuitive for some. During the Virtual Dialogue on January 26, 2021, invited experts Jimmy Zammar, Robert Newell and Victoria Kramkowski shared their insights on projects undertaken in Vancouver, Squamish and Toronto.