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TabGroup♦ Municipal water and wastewater systems are failing Canadians. To ensure safe drinking water and effective sewage treatment, Environment Probe is calling for stricter government regulation (both environmental and economic) and for greater private funding and operation of utilities. The organization has promoted the privatization and regulation of water utilities in a number of forums, including the Walkerton Inquiry, which funded an extensive study of the issue. The Panel on the Future Role of Government in Ontario also commissioned a paper on the issue from the organization. Environment Probe's book, Liquid Assets: Privatizing and Regulating Canada's Water Utilities (published by the University of Toronto's Centre for Public Management), was short-listed for the 2002/2003 Donner Prize, an award for the best public policy book in Canada.
♦ In some regions of Canada, water is becoming increasingly scarce. And across the country, water and wastewater systems are undersized and in need of repair. Because Canadians pay so little for water, they have few incentives to conserve, and utilities have insufficient funds to improve their infrastructure. Environment Probe is campaigning to promote full-cost pricing to protect public health and the environment.
♦ In May 2000, contaminated water killed seven people and sickened 2,300 in Walkerton, Ontario. Environment Probe, under the banner of the Energy Probe Research Foundation, participated extensively in the public inquiry established to examine the causes of the tragedy and, more generally, the safety of drinking water in Ontario. Over the course of the two-year inquiry, the organization cross-examined witnesses, participated in expert meetings, and made submissions on environmental and economic regulation, enforcement, source protection, agricultural pollution, incentive structures, accountability mechanisms, and the privatization and financing of water utilities.
♦ Many of the worst drinking water systems in Canada are found on native reserves. In 2006, the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development commissioned a study from Environment Probe on the governance of water systems. In its review of emerging best practices and in its subsequent work, Environment Probe has stressed the importance of legally binding standards, expert operators, sustainable financing, and meaningful accountability mechanisms.
♦ Constructed wetlands provide a simple, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly method of purifying stormwater and contaminated water from households, small communities, farms, landfills, and mines. They also provide food and habitat for wildlife and create pleasant landscapes. Environment Probe is working to promote the use of constructed wetlands.
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In the January/February 2010 issue of Water Canada, Elizabeth Brubaker writes: Canada's municipal utilities are in trouble, and it seems increasingly unlikely that the provinces will bail them out. Federal aid seems equally unlikely, given the finance minister's warnings that there will be no major new spending initiatives in the 2010 budget. But our utilities need not despair. Although public money may be scarce, private investment and pricing reforms can provide sustainable solutions to the problems they face. read more »
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Water's value increases as it becomes scarcer. Elizabeth Brubaker, executive director of Environment Probe, says an accurate water pricing system is the best way to promote water conservation. read more »
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To really grasp the enormity of Alberta’s coming water challenges, you have to make a trip to the Columbia Icefields viewpoint in Jasper National Park. (You have to make the trip there anyway, but that’s another story.) A series of signs mark how far the glacier extended in past years. Back in the 1890s, it buried what is now the Icefields Parkway. In the 1920s, it was where the parking lot is now located. To reach the ice today, you have to leave your car and trudge over a kilometre of moraine, and on the way a shocking realization hits you. At the 1983 sign, you’re still only halfway there. The pace of the retreat has been picking up alarmingly. read more »
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A leading water environmentalist is urging Alberta to privatize publicly run water utilities, ending a "cozy relationship" between the government and municipal utility operators. Elizabeth Brubaker, executive-director of Toronto's Environment Probe policy group, says privatization will improve accountability and is the best way to boost water quality while reducing costs. read more »
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Alberta's water utilities need work. A few years ago, the province conducted an assessment of its 534 water-treatment plants. It found widespread problems – especially in southern Alberta, where 70% of the systems got poor ratings. read more »
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Interview with Elizabeth Brubaker Joe Easingwood, of CFAX 1070 Radio, interviews Elizabeth Brubaker about plans for sewage treatment in Victoria, BC, and about the services best provided by the private sector.
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The continuing decline of Canada's water treatment and and wastewater systems is one of the most pressing issues facing infrastructure across the country. According to reports from the Fraser Institute, there is several billion dollars worth of water infrastructure work that needs to be done before our water treatment and wastewater systems are brought up to an acceptable level. read more »
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Cash-strapped governments all across Canada need to encourage private investment in water and wastewater systems if the nation wants to better protect public health and the environment, urges a new study by the Fraser Institute. read more »
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TORONTO— A recent report from The Fraser Institute says $90 billion is needed to fix aging and poorly regulated, managed, and maintained water systems throughout Canada, and private investments may be the only hope. read more »
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A wave of new privately funded roads, water and wastewater facilities, hospitals and schools could reverse New Brunswick's demographic woes and attract new investment, say experts. read more »
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In his recent "Economic and Fiscal Update," federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced a "bold new plan to make our country a world leader" through public-private partnerships. The financing provided through such partnerships, Mr. Flaherty explained, is a way "to get more out of infrastructure investments." read more »
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When the water pipes leading into the Vancouver Island community of Tofino very nearly went dry before the Labour Day weekend, Mayor John Fraser pushed the proverbial panic button, issuing an order compelling local businesses to turn off their taps. His Honour claimed it was necessary, since no rain had fallen the entire summer to replenish Tofino's water supply. But the edict would cost resorts, restaurants and other tourist businesses dearly, as customers cancelled en masse their long-weekend getaways to the scenic Pacific community. read more »
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At a time when so many Canadian municipalities are facing problems with their water and sewage systems, it might seem ironic – even annoying – that the Canada Pension Plan should be contributing $1-billion to the proposed acquisition of a private water utility in the U.K. read more »
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The people of Walkerton, Ont., don't want to take any more chances. That's why the townsfolk, and those in the neighbouring communities that comprise the amalgamated municipality of Brockton, have decided to turn to a private firm to operate their water and wastewater systems. "We want to hire someone we can trust," Brockton Mayor Charlie Bagnato states. "In the name of safety, and to keep everyone happy, we have to get someone we can rely on." read more »
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Plop, plop go the bags of money being dropped from a plane into the Kashechewan swamp. "That ought to do it" says the pilot as he flies out of the National Post's editorial cartoon. The cartoon captures the absurdity of the political response to the discovery of E. coli in the drinking water of the native community in Northern Ontario. read more »
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Water and Wastewater Publications
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Yesterday, Ontario legislators debated a private member's bill that would transform the way water and wastewater services are organized, financed, and regulated. Bill 237, the Sustainable Water and Waste Water Systems Improvement and Maintenance Act (SWIM), would require metering and full cost recovery, promote consolidation of smaller systems, encourage private sector involvement in service provision, and establish an economic regulator to oversee water and wastewater utilities across the province. The bill passed Second Reading and was referred to the Standing Committee on General Government for review. read more »
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The Conference Board of Canada has joined the growing ranks of those endorsing full-cost pricing of water and wastewater services. In Improving Infrastructure Management: Municipal Investments in Water and Wastewater, the Conference Board points out that much of Canada's water and sewage infrastructure is old and due for replacement – work that will cost many tens of billions of dollars. In order to tackle their infrastructure deficits, municipalities will need stable sources of revenue. Instead of waiting for grants, municipalities should rely on water revenues: "Consumers must pay for every unit of water they consume, and the price paid must reflect the supply cost."
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In the January/February 2010 issue of Water Canada, Elizabeth Brubaker writes: Canada's municipal utilities are in trouble, and it seems increasingly unlikely that the provinces will bail them out. Federal aid seems equally unlikely, given the finance minister's warnings that there will be no major new spending initiatives in the 2010 budget. But our utilities need not despair. Although public money may be scarce, private investment and pricing reforms can provide sustainable solutions to the problems they face. read more »
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Environment Probe turned 20 this year. To our surprise and delight, we also learned this year that our foundation maintains Canada's most popular environmental web site. The reason, we suspect, is that the public doesn't like top-down environmentalism, and we have the field of community-based, market-oriented environmentalism pretty well to ourselves. read more »
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In his Annual Report on Drinking Water, Ontario's Environment Minister urges consumers to choose tap water as their drinking water, assuring them that it is safe and of high quality. He boasts of the last year's drinking water quality test results, noting that 99.85 percent of the tests of municipal residential drinking water systems met strict standards. Not so fast, Mr. Gerretsen! Such complacency is both unwarranted and dangerous. read more »
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In his Annual Report on Drinking Water, Ontario Environment Minister John Gerretsen claims that, through the Financial Plans Regulation, the province is "ensuring that all system owners take the first step in planning for the long-term financial sustainability of their drinking water systems." Unfortunately, the Financial Plans Regulation, which was developed in 2007 and will go into effect in 2010, will do little to make drinking water systems financially sustainable. The regulation requires municipalities to prepare financial plans for their systems. But these plans need not ensure that municipalities price water services in order to recover their full costs from their customers. read more »
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A brief reference to Microbial Source Tracking appears in the Annual Report on Drinking Water released last week by Ontario's Minister of the Environment. Researchers using this exciting new technology recently identified agriculture as the dominant source of E. coli in southeastern Lake Huron. read more »
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"Ontario is a leader in protecting drinking water." So claims the headline accompanying last week's release of the Environment Minister's Annual Report on Drinking Water. But it seems that Minister Gerretsen has confused rhetoric with leadership. His report is strong only on the former. read more »
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In this presentation to mayors and chief administrative officers of Alberta municipalities, Elizabeth Brubaker describes the challenges facing Alberta's water providers: Many water systems perform poorly, many face growing water shortages, and all are operating in an ever more difficult regulatory environment. Brubaker advises municipalities to price their water right, invest in their systems, get experts to operate them, and hold the operators accountable for their performance. read more »
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Yesterday, at a conference on renewing Ontario's infrastructure, Colin Saunders, the Utilities Manager for Brockton, expressed great satisfaction over his municipality's partnership with a private water and wastewater operator. Brockton, which includes the town of Walkerton, is reassured by the firm's expertise and its large pool of trained staff. It is impressed by quality control programs that exceed those required by the province. And it is delighted by the significant cost savings offered by the firm. read more »
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In this presentation to a conference on Infrastructure Renewal held in Toronto in October 2009, Elizabeth Brubaker discusses Ontario's water and wastewater problems, including poorly performing utilities, unmet capital needs, and underpriced services. read more »
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The 2008 Environmental Compliance Reports have been posted on the Ontario Ministry of Environment web site, and the news is not good. Reports of non-compliance at 102 municipal sewage facilities fill 111 pages. Some of the province's biggest cities – Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, London – show up in the reports. read more »
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Environment Probe's comments on Stewardship, Leadership, Accountability: Safeguarding and Sustaining Ontario's Water Resources for Future Generations, a Proposal Paper presented by Ontario Minister of the Environment John Gerretsen and Ontario Minister of Natural Resources Donna Cansfield. read more »
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Toronto's sewage woes were in the news last week. The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Sun, and the Toronto Star all ran stories about legal charges arising from a sewage bypass at Toronto's Ashbridges Bay treatment plant. But the real story here isn't that charges have been laid. The real story is that charges should be laid far more often. read more »
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In a speech last week to the Empire Club of Canada, Preston Manning addressed looming water shortages in southern Alberta. He called for "a provincial policy requiring Albertans to meter and measure the use of every drop of water consumed in the province and the attachment of a price to that water to conserve and allocate it efficiently." read more »
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TabGroup2Books, Studies and Reports
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Environment Probe's comments on Stewardship, Leadership, Accountability: Safeguarding and Sustaining Ontario's Water Resources for Future Generations, a Proposal Paper presented by Ontario Minister of the Environment John Gerretsen and Ontario Minister of Natural Resources Donna Cansfield. read more »
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This chapter from A Breath of Fresh Air: Market Solutions for Improving Canada's Environment reviews the challenges faced by Canada's water and wastewater utilities and proposes private investment, private operations, and better accountability mechanisms, including enforceable contracts and more effective regulation of utility performance. It also recommends a federal role in facilitating private-sector involvement. read more »
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Prepared for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. This report examines reforms to the governance of municipal water systems in Ontario, considers factors determining their success or failure, identifies emerging solutions to lingering problems, and draws lessons that may help solve some of the problems plaguing aboriginal water systems. read more »
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Prepared for the Government of Ontario Panel on the Role of Government. This paper reviews recent setbacks for privatization and explores the reasons behind Canadian municipalities' reluctance to contract out operations of their water and wastewater utilities. read more »
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Published by the University of Toronto's Centre for Public Management. This book argues that public provision of water and wastewater services has not served Canadians well. Based on successes in other jurisdictions, it calls for the privatization of utilities and examines the conditions -- such as competition, effective regulation, legal liability, and union support -- necessary to make privatization work. read more »
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Elizabeth Brubaker and Tom Adams EPRF's presentation to the Walkerton Inquiry's Public Hearing on the Management of Water Providers recommends privatization in order to attract private capital and expertise, encourage efficiency, and enhance accountability. read more »
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Doug Paisley and Elizabeth Brubaker This submission to the Walkerton Inquiry concludes that OCWA is an unaccountable and ineffective agency that works in opposition to the public interest and discourages private sector involvement in the water sector. read more »
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EPRF's presentation to the Walkerton Inquiry's Public Hearing on Specific Sources of Contaminants recommends that farmers bear the full costs of preventing pollution from their operations. read more »
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This supplementary report, prepared for by the Walkerton Inquiry, reveals a decade of provincial interest in privatization. It reviews the anticipated benefits of privatization and the barriers to it. read more »
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EPRF's presentation to the Walkerton Inquiry's Public Hearing on Source Protection recommends that the provincial government should grant no one the right to contaminate a source of water. read more »
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Energy Probe Research Foundation This argument traces the Walkerton tragedy to the provincial government's failed approach to regulation and enforcement and to its failure to implement its policies regarding the privatization and financing of water utilities. read more »
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Elizabeth Brubaker and Thomas Adams EPRF's presentation to the Walkerton Inquiry's Public Hearing on the Provincial Government's Functions recommends that the government should limit itself to strictly regulating water and wastewater systems. read more »
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Tom Adams and Elizabeth Brubaker EPRF's presentation to the Walkerton Inquiry's Public Hearing on Guiding Principles focuses on the need to eliminate conflicts of interest and to internalize costs. read more »
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This study, prepared for the Walkerton Inquiry, promotes user pay and full cost pricing, independent economic regulation, and strengthened environmental law enforcement. read more »
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This study, prepared for the Walkerton Inquiry, examines the privatization of water and wastewater utilities in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. It reveals that privatization has brought investment, expertise, innovation, efficiency, and accountability to water and wastewater utilities, improving their performance and their compliance with health and environmental standards. read more »
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In the January/February 2010 issue of Water Canada, Elizabeth Brubaker writes: Canada's municipal utilities are in trouble, and it seems increasingly unlikely that the provinces will bail them out. Federal aid seems equally unlikely, given the finance minister's warnings that there will be no major new spending initiatives in the 2010 budget. But our utilities need not despair. Although public money may be scarce, private investment and pricing reforms can provide sustainable solutions to the problems they face. read more »
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Alberta's water utilities need work. A few years ago, the province conducted an assessment of its 534 water-treatment plants. It found widespread problems – especially in southern Alberta, where 70% of the systems got poor ratings. read more »
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Interview with Elizabeth Brubaker Joe Easingwood, of CFAX 1070 Radio, interviews Elizabeth Brubaker about plans for sewage treatment in Victoria, BC, and about the services best provided by the private sector.
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In his recent "Economic and Fiscal Update," federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced a "bold new plan to make our country a world leader" through public-private partnerships. The financing provided through such partnerships, Mr. Flaherty explained, is a way "to get more out of infrastructure investments." read more »
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The people of Walkerton, Ont., don't want to take any more chances. That's why the townsfolk, and those in the neighbouring communities that comprise the amalgamated municipality of Brockton, have decided to turn to a private firm to operate their water and wastewater systems. "We want to hire someone we can trust," Brockton Mayor Charlie Bagnato states. "In the name of safety, and to keep everyone happy, we have to get someone we can rely on." read more »
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Plop, plop go the bags of money being dropped from a plane into the Kashechewan swamp. "That ought to do it" says the pilot as he flies out of the National Post's editorial cartoon. The cartoon captures the absurdity of the political response to the discovery of E. coli in the drinking water of the native community in Northern Ontario. read more »
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Five years after contaminated water killed seven people and sickened 2,300 in Walkerton, Ont., the causes of the tragedy are widely understood.
Just ask the U.S.-based Natural Resources Defense Council, which bills itself as "the nation's most effective environmental action organization." In a review of Every Drop for Sale: Our Desperate Battle Over Water in a World About to Run Out, the chairman of the editorial board of NRDC's magazine explained the events of May, 2000: read more »
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CBC's Fifth Estate last week pronounced the privatization of water and wastewater utilities "Dead in the Water." In fact, such privatizations are alive and well. By the CBC's own admission, private water companies now serve hundreds of millions of people around the globe. read more »
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Four hundred and seven. That's the number of municipally owned water treatment plants that failed Ontario inspections in the year ending March 31, 2003. More than two years after contaminated water killed seven people and sickened 2,300 in the town of Walkerton, Ont., 61% of the province's water plants still got failing grades in training, sampling, disinfection or water quality. That's an astonishing figure. And it's proof that public water provision isn't working in Ontario. read more »
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Last month, Halifax Regional Council pulled out of a deal with a private consortium formed to curb the sewage pollution that has long soiled Halifax Harbour. The agreement's unravelling - exacerbating a Canada-wide retreat from water and wastewater privatizations - spells bad news for the health of Canadians and the health of the Canadian environment. An anatomy of the breakup shows that Canada's local governments have a long way to go before they reach the level of sophistication needed to chart their way in privatization waters. read more »
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Public Citizen, Ralph Nader's signature organization, and the director of its environment program, Wenonah Hauter, assert that privatization "is not, and never will be, the solution" to Canada's water woes (Water is a Right, letter, Jan. 20). For another point of view on the merits of water privatization, I refer readers to Ms. Hauter's erstwhile colleague, Alex Tsybine. read more »
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The World Bank, in 1998, called privatization "a defining feature of the last two decades." Popular candidates for early privatizations included telecommunications and electric power utilities. Water and wastewater utilities soon followed, haltingly at first and then with greater momentum. If water was, as the Financial Times's John Barham suggested in 1997, "the last frontier in privatization around the world," it was a frontier that was being aggressively explored. read more »
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For three days in September, a mechanical failure at Winnipeg's largest sewage treatment plant sent the waste from 370,000 people spewing, untreated, into the Red River. The putrid mixture of human, household, and industrial wastewater poured into the river at the rate of 230,000 cubic metres a day, poisoning the water, threatening fish, creating a stench, and alarming downstream residents who feared that the contamination could seep into their wells. read more »
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When the Ontario government received the final report of the Walkerton Inquiry in May, it promised to take action on each of Commissioner Dennis O'Connor's recommendations. Tuesday, as part of that promise, Environment Minister Chris Stockwell introduced a Safe Drinking Water Act. read more »
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Almost two years have passed since contaminated drinking water killed seven people and made 2,300 ill in Walkerton, Ontario. The tragedy called attention to severe deficiencies in water systems all across Canada. Consumers have been deluged with reports of their utilities' failures to comply with regulations and to make desperately needed capital improvements. read more »
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In this presentation to mayors and chief administrative officers of Alberta municipalities, Elizabeth Brubaker describes the challenges facing Alberta's water providers: Many water systems perform poorly, many face growing water shortages, and all are operating in an ever more difficult regulatory environment. Brubaker advises municipalities to price their water right, invest in their systems, get experts to operate them, and hold the operators accountable for their performance. read more »
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In this presentation to a conference on Infrastructure Renewal held in Toronto in October 2009, Elizabeth Brubaker discusses Ontario's water and wastewater problems, including poorly performing utilities, unmet capital needs, and underpriced services. read more »
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In this presentation to Property Rights and the Environment, a student colloquium held in Vancouver in July 2009, Elizabeth Brubaker explains that property rights provide incentives to conserve scarce resources, such as water and fish. read more »
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The 2007 EPCOR Distinguished Lecture, presented by the Centre for Applied Business Research in Energy and the Environment, in Edmonton, Alberta, on October 18, 2007. read more »
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A presentation to the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce, in Victoria, British Columbia, on May 2, 2007. read more »
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A presentation to the Fraser Institute Student Seminar on Public Policy Issues, in Toronto, Ontario, on November 13, 2004. read more »
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A presentation to the meeting of the Water Utility Executive Council of the National Association of Water Companies. The meeting took place in Phoenix, Arizona, on March 30, 2004. read more »
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A talk prepared for Water Utilities in British Columbia: Industry Challenges and P3 Experiences, a workshop organized by the British Columbia Water and Wastewater Association in Richmond, BC, on October 23, 2003. read more »
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A speech to the Annual Conference of the National Association of Water Companies, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on October 15, 2003. read more »
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Presented to "Public Goals, Private Means" Research Colloquium
Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, October 3, 2003
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A speech to the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships's Ninth Annual Conference, held in Toronto, Ontario, on November 27, 2001. read more »
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A presentation to the Safe and Clean Drinking Water Strategies Conference, held in Toronto, Ontario, on July 10, 2001.
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A presentation to the Fraser Institute Student Seminar on Public Policy Issues, in Toronto, Ontario, on November 4, 1995.
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Environment Probe turned 20 this year. To our surprise and delight, we also learned this year that our foundation maintains Canada's most popular environmental web site. The reason, we suspect, is that the public doesn't like top-down environmentalism, and we have the field of community-based, market-oriented environmentalism pretty well to ourselves. read more »
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“Whiskey,” Mark Twain famously said, “is for drinking, and water is for fighting over.” And increasingly, fighting over it we are. read more »
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Victoria is, at long last, preparing a plan to treat its sewage. After decades of denying that it is causing harm and resisting pressures to clean up, BC's capital regional district (the CRD, as the greater Victoria region is known) is being forced to assume its environmental responsibilities. read more »
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Our water and our air are under siege, and our governments are doing precious little to protect them. Warnings have been sounded by two of Canada's most prominent environmental watchdogs. Together, they demonstrate the pressing need for a new approach to environmental protection. read more »
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The political and regulatory changes that we fight for can be discouragingly slow - so slow, sometimes, as to be almost imperceptible. And yet, looking back over the course of a decade or two, there is great reason to take heart. That is one of the lessons brought home to me by a study we have just completed. read more »
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Will we never learn? Once again, we watch with horror as a community struggles with contaminated water. And once again, we are appalled by our governments responding with political fixes rather than lasting solutions. read more »
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Four-hundred-and-seven. That's the number of municipally owned water treatment plants that failed Ontario inspections in the year ending March 31, 2003. More than two years after contaminated water killed seven people and sickened 2,300 in the town of Walkerton, 61 percent of the province's water plants got failing grades in training, sampling, disinfection, or water quality. Yet still - as has always been the case, whatever the party in power, and however desperate the need - the province hesitates to enforce its water laws. read more »
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Earlier this year, several days after a lengthy interview with a writer for a weekly news magazine, I received a puzzled e-mail. "How would you describe yourself politically?" the writer asked. "Do you lean towards the left or the right?" read more »
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How much longer will we tolerate unsafe drinking water and polluted waterways? When will we crack down on industrial polluters - the chief culprits in many jurisdictions? And when will we clean up the sewage pollution that has become a national disgrace and an international black eye? It is "perhaps Canada's ugliest environmental secret," with "pollution on a scale unseen outside the Third World," reported the Boston Globe. And yet our governments remain unconscionably complacent and indifferent to the need for immediate action. read more »
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I write to you during a time of terrible insecurity. Since September 11th, we have had to confront our vulnerability on so many levels. We have feared for the safety of our communities. We have lost our casual confidence in the very air that we breathe. We have become painfully aware that much of our security rests upon a tissue of trust and cooperation – one that is delicate and, once torn, difficult to repair. read more »
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Last May, a deadly strain of E. coli bacteria contaminated the water system in Walkerton, Ontario. A testing lab informed the Public Utilities Commission of the contamination, but, inexplicably, the PUC withheld the information from both the public and the government for the following five days. Not until the medical officer of health, alarmed by the soaring cases of bloody diarrhea in the town, conducted independent tests did the PUC confess its dirty secret. The information came too late: The contaminated water killed six people and sickened 2,000. read more »
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I'm feeling a little nostalgic. It's the tenth anniversary of Environment Probe's founding, and as I look back over my time here, I find my mind wanders less to the small victories we've had from time to time, and more to the rewarding comments I've received from supporters over the years, comments that touched and inspired me and led me to squirrel them away in a special file. I'd like to share several of them with you. read more »
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The Beach: The History of Paradise on Earth. That's the title of a new book that describes the western world's love affair with beaches. For over a century, we have flocked to sandy shores to escape summer's heat, to seek spiritual and artistic inspiration, and above all, to have fun. Sadly, many of our beaches are anything but paradises these days. Contaminated by human sewage, they have become sources of sickness rather than delight. read more »
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Canada's sewage system is a disgrace. Hundreds of thousands of Canadians dump their sewage, untreated, into our coastal waters. Over a million more contaminate our lakes and rivers with raw sewage. Sewage treatment plants, in desperate need of repair and upgrading, regularly violate provincial and federal laws. In Nova Scotia and British Columbia, non-complying plants are the norm. Six dozen plants in Ontario, and over four dozen in Quebec, exceed their discharge limits. Across the country, sewage pollution contaminates beaches and harbours, puts shellfish grounds off limits to harvesters, and kills fish. read more »
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Quebec's bureaucrats don't appreciate our findings. They complain that our recent study of sewage pollution in Quebec makes them look like they're incompetent, or not doing their jobs. And no wonder. The study, by Environment Probe researcher Martin Nantel, points out that although Quebec has made considerable progress since the 1970s (when wastewater treatment facilities served less than two per cent of the population), 376 municipalities, representing 1.5 million people, still flush their sewage directly into lakes and rivers. When we released the study early this year, media interest created great consternation in government ranks. The Environment Minister is now demanding explanations from senior bureaucrats, who berate our uncompromising positions. read more »
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Yesterday, Ontario legislators debated a private member's bill that would transform the way water and wastewater services are organized, financed, and regulated. Bill 237, the Sustainable Water and Waste Water Systems Improvement and Maintenance Act (SWIM), would require metering and full cost recovery, promote consolidation of smaller systems, encourage private sector involvement in service provision, and establish an economic regulator to oversee water and wastewater utilities across the province. The bill passed Second Reading and was referred to the Standing Committee on General Government for review. read more »
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The Conference Board of Canada has joined the growing ranks of those endorsing full-cost pricing of water and wastewater services. In Improving Infrastructure Management: Municipal Investments in Water and Wastewater, the Conference Board points out that much of Canada's water and sewage infrastructure is old and due for replacement – work that will cost many tens of billions of dollars. In order to tackle their infrastructure deficits, municipalities will need stable sources of revenue. Instead of waiting for grants, municipalities should rely on water revenues: "Consumers must pay for every unit of water they consume, and the price paid must reflect the supply cost."
read more »
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In his Annual Report on Drinking Water, Ontario's Environment Minister urges consumers to choose tap water as their drinking water, assuring them that it is safe and of high quality. He boasts of the last year's drinking water quality test results, noting that 99.85 percent of the tests of municipal residential drinking water systems met strict standards. Not so fast, Mr. Gerretsen! Such complacency is both unwarranted and dangerous. read more »
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In his Annual Report on Drinking Water, Ontario Environment Minister John Gerretsen claims that, through the Financial Plans Regulation, the province is "ensuring that all system owners take the first step in planning for the long-term financial sustainability of their drinking water systems." Unfortunately, the Financial Plans Regulation, which was developed in 2007 and will go into effect in 2010, will do little to make drinking water systems financially sustainable. The regulation requires municipalities to prepare financial plans for their systems. But these plans need not ensure that municipalities price water services in order to recover their full costs from their customers. read more »
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A brief reference to Microbial Source Tracking appears in the Annual Report on Drinking Water released last week by Ontario's Minister of the Environment. Researchers using this exciting new technology recently identified agriculture as the dominant source of E. coli in southeastern Lake Huron. read more »
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"Ontario is a leader in protecting drinking water." So claims the headline accompanying last week's release of the Environment Minister's Annual Report on Drinking Water. But it seems that Minister Gerretsen has confused rhetoric with leadership. His report is strong only on the former. read more »
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Yesterday, at a conference on renewing Ontario's infrastructure, Colin Saunders, the Utilities Manager for Brockton, expressed great satisfaction over his municipality's partnership with a private water and wastewater operator. Brockton, which includes the town of Walkerton, is reassured by the firm's expertise and its large pool of trained staff. It is impressed by quality control programs that exceed those required by the province. And it is delighted by the significant cost savings offered by the firm. read more »
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The 2008 Environmental Compliance Reports have been posted on the Ontario Ministry of Environment web site, and the news is not good. Reports of non-compliance at 102 municipal sewage facilities fill 111 pages. Some of the province's biggest cities – Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, London – show up in the reports. read more »
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Toronto's sewage woes were in the news last week. The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Sun, and the Toronto Star all ran stories about legal charges arising from a sewage bypass at Toronto's Ashbridges Bay treatment plant. But the real story here isn't that charges have been laid. The real story is that charges should be laid far more often. read more »
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In a speech last week to the Empire Club of Canada, Preston Manning addressed looming water shortages in southern Alberta. He called for "a provincial policy requiring Albertans to meter and measure the use of every drop of water consumed in the province and the attachment of a price to that water to conserve and allocate it efficiently." read more »
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Environment Minister Jim Prentice has recently expressed serious concerns about sewage pollution across Canada. But the government’s purported commitment to cleaning up sewage polluting seems to conflict with recent actions it has taken on the West Coast. In two cases in the last two years, the government has stayed charges laid under the Fisheries Act by citizens determined to clean up sewage pollution. read more »
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The Reason Foundation's Annual Privatization Report 2009, released in August, provides a good snap shot of private-sector involvement in American water and wastewater utilities. Some highlights:
• Public Works Financing reports that 1,336 government agencies contracted out some part of their water or wastewater utility operations in 2008.
• Governments appear to be satisfied with their outsourcing arrangements. In 2008, 95 percent of the water industry contracts up for renewal were renewed with the incumbent contractor, and five percent went to a competitor. Just five percent reverted to municipal operations.
read more »
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A coalition of environmental organizations and water associations is calling on Ontario to encourage volume-based water pricing to promote conservation.
H2Ontario: A Blueprint for a Comprehensive Water Conservation Strategy, released in August, calls for a "market transformation" that will embed in the economy "the right signals" for citizens, businesses, and communities. It urges the province to do three things to bring about such a transformation: mandate meters; move towards full-cost and volume-based pricing; and increase water charges for water users.
read more »
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A recent poll by Circle of Blue found that 65 percent of the Canadians surveyed were very concerned about the lack of safe drinking water. And 82 percent agreed that solving Canada's drinking water problems will require significant help from companies. read more »
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Every year, Ontario's Chief Drinking Water Inspector produces a report on the province's water systems. The current report (for April 2007 - March 2008) came out in June. Despite the Inspector's assurances to the contrary, the report includes much to be concerned about.
read more »
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TabGroup4Ecojustice Canada: Drinking Water Report Card Ecojustice: National Sewage Report Card Environment Canada: Governance of Water in Canada Environment Canada: Water Resource Economics Links Government of Canada: Water Resources Links H2infO: Water Information Network -
Reason Foundation: Water and Wastewater Resource Centre The Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships
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