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Rising water demands are putting increasing pressure on many water agencies’ infrastructure and thus signaling the possible need for greater capital investments. A key ingredient…

Across the country, municipalities are grappling with major water infrastructure challenges: aging infrastructure, legacy combined sewer systems, upgrading treatment plants to meet environmental requirements and…

Not all infrastructure is made of concrete. Around the world, wetlands are both environmentally and economically beneficial green infrastructure. These unique ecosystems reduce the severity…

In the summer of 2013, Toronto and Calgary were rocked by floods that cost each municipality millions of dollars in damage. Flooded cars were stranded…

Reliable water, sewer, and stormwater systems are essential to public health, a clean environment, and a strong economy. But these essential systems may be at…

Federal Infrastructure Minister Denis Lebel officially launched the New Building Canada Fund (NBCF) on March 28, 2014 to a lukewarm reception. While the plan is…

The words “sustainable” and “resilient” have become widespread descriptors for infrastructure: resonating in brochures, ads, logos, business cards, magazines, and college curricula. These two words…

Municipalities throughout North America have substantial investments in their wastewater treatment systems, and of course as populations grow, utilities must consider investing in expansion. Recently,…

Winter-related issues disrupt communities across Canada every year and the impacts from extreme weather events, like ice storms, are compounded as we endure one polar…

Ristigouche-Partie-Sud-Est (hereafter “Ristigouche”), a small municipality of 168 inhabitants located in Gaspésie, Quebec, is facing a lawsuit of $1.5 million by Gastem, a local private…

The future is notoriously difficult to predict. But if the past is anything to go by, the coming decades could bring a lot of change.…

Tansley Bridge was originally built in 1919 and supported a highway crossing Bronte Creek. In 1948, the highway was realigned following the construction of the…

Ontario’s water technology champion, WaterTAP, is placing a new focus on supporting the province’s water tech companies as they build capacity to export their products…

This summer, four Alberta First Nations decided to pursue judicial consideration of their right to water. Over the past decade, the issue of unsafe drinking…

During the height of fishing season in New Brunswick, as anglers lured Atlantic salmon on the famous Miramichi River and kids navigated through thickets to…

When McGill professor and researcher Viviane Yargeau used to visit wastewater treatment stations to explain her work on controlling contaminants of emerging concern, municipalities were…

The total volume of shale gas present across Canada is estimated to be greater than 4,995 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), and approximately 573 Tcf of…

In March 2011, a powerful earthquake triggered a tsunami that crippled the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in northeastern Japan. More than 15,000 people died…

It should come as no surprise that wastewater operators continue to be plagued by non-flushables on a daily basis. Dental floss, personal care products, paper…

The Duffin Creek Water Pollution Control Plant was supposed to enhance phosphorus removal when an expansion was completed in 2013. Built by the province in…

Urban flooding—increasingly prevalent with climate change—causes extensive economic, health, social, and environmental issues. Internationally, jurisdictions including Canadian municipalities are establishing stormwater utilities to mitigate the…

On July 8, 2012, Environment Canada published the Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations (WSER) under the Fisheries Act, a set of national wastewater effluent quality standards…

While Canada is becoming increasingly urbanized, between 19 and 30 per of the population still lives in either rural or small-town areas. These areas face…

Elimination of long-standing provincial funding in the mid-1990s led the County of Oxford in Southwest Ontario to develop its own funding support program for existing…