Water

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What Can We Do About Water Pollution and Over-Use?

Despite the perception of Canada as a “water wealthy” nation, our rivers, lakes, and groundwater sources face pressures from pollution as well as from over-use. Toxic effluents released into waterways—whether from agricultural runoff, tailings ponds from mines, or other municipal and industrial wastewater—have major implications for ecosystems and also for human health and economic activity. Appropriate water pricing policies can encourage less water pollution in Canada, leading to healthier lakes, rivers and streams.

Why Price Water Services?

Free or inexpensive water services can lead to over-consumption, putting pressure on our supplies and our ecosystems. Water pricing can create important incentives for water conservation. Similarly, user-fees for waste-water treatment and municipal infrastructure can help cities provide access to the safe, clean water everyone needs.

Recent Blog Posts

Water Research

We cannot eliminate the risk of environmental disasters, but we can do more to manage it. Putting a price on environmental risk is key to doing so. This report looks at how we can take more responsible risks.

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Well-designed user fees can improve conservation, fund infrastructure, and protect water quality. This report includes 10 best practices for designing and implementing user fees for water and wastewater services, based on experience in Canadian cities.

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This report makes the economic case for a new suite of Canadian policies—ecofiscal policies—that align our municipal, provincial and national economic ambitions with environmental imperatives.

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