The benefits of water meters: We can’t manage what we don’t measure

Livable Cities Water

Measuring our water consumption is fundamental to sustainable water management. Water meters provide municipal water utilities with vital information on how, when, and where we use water. They also allow municipalities to charge based on how much water we use. For these reasons and more, installing water meters is Best Practice #1 in our recent […]

A Price for All Seasons: Tofino’s Journey to Water Security

Livable Cities Water

Dry summers are the norm in British Columbia, especially of late. They can mean anything from forest fires to low crop yields to water scarcity. To prepare for the inevitability of future droughts, BC municipalities are taking innovative approaches to conserve their water. Today, as part of our new report that highlights 10 municipal best […]

water user fees

TLDR: How user fees can improve the environmental and financial sustainability of municipal water and wastewater services

Water

It’s easy to forget how important municipal water and wastewater services are in our daily lives. These complex systems treat and deliver water for millions of Canadian households and businesses—vital to our health, the economy, and the environment. Yet municipal water systems across Canada face significant challenges. The Ecofiscal Commission’s latest report, Only the Pipes […]

Stormwater fees can reduce loss of clean water

How to Stop Turning Valuable Clean Water into Costly Stormwater

Livable Cities Water

Canada’s infrastructure deficit continues to make headlines in the country. The requirement to maintain and build new infrastructure offers an opportunity to think about the interplay between the environmental impacts of our infrastructure, the means by which we pay for these infrastructure and their environmental costs (sounds pretty ecofiscal to me!). This weeks’ blog looks […]