CWWA 2013 Window on Ottawa
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CWWA hosted our Annual Window on Ottawa – November 28-29, 2013. The Window is CWWA’s core event featuring presentations from the federal government and other national organizations on national issues, priorities and programs. Participants all commented on the quality of the program and networking opportunities. While most events look back on completed projects and initiatives, the Window on Ottawa gives an overview of upcoming initiatives and directions – allowing participants to be on the leading edge and prepared for what’s coming on a national level. The Event is structured in a way to ensure plenty of time for our members to interact with the speakers – either during panel discussion, question periods or networking opportunities – this enables an invaluable opportunity to provide feedback and even influence the direction of federal initiatives.
Key topics discussed included an infrastructure panel featuring presentations from Infrastructure Canada, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the Walkerton Clean Water Centre and the University of Waterloo. The Government of Canada is still committed to launching the Building Canada Fund in time for construction season – despite a lack of public consultation and no information on the application process. FCM is advising its members to have projects application ready, as a quick turn-around is expected on submission and decision. The funding formula under the Building Canada Fund will be based on per-capita calculations – members are concerned this may make accessing sufficient funds challenging for small municipalities.
The Infrastructure panel also discussed the value of public-private-partnerships to fund municipal infrastructure projects. Under the new Building Canada Fund, the largest projects will be required to consider P3's so members can expect a growing emphasis on developing these relationships. The water and wastewater sector has been slow to adopt the P3 model, but there have been some successful projects across the country.
Participants had an opportunity to express long-standing concerns about the lack of dedicated funds for water and wastewater, especially with the implementation of the Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations and the associated costs. Government participants said that while they understand the need for investment in these areas, they prefer to allow individual municipalities to determine their spending priorities. This highlights the importance of a continued campaign to raise the profile of water and wastewater issues, and the importance of investments to ensure public and environmental health.
(right: delegates network during the Window on Ottawa)
Environment Canada provided an update on the Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations. The Regulations are now at the implementation phase, and utilities have already filed identification reports under the Regulation. Environment Canada is aware that there was some frustration with the online reporting system, but hope that now that the initial accounts are created the reporting system will be easy to use. They also provided an update on the status of negotiations with the provinces. The enforcement agreements are taking longer than expected to finalize. Many provinces are seeking equivalency, which will allow the provincial regulation to supersede the federal one – this process is particularly slow as it requires a great deal of oversight to ensure that all the federal requirements are met, and changes to the provincial regulations as required. Environment Canada also indicated that no province is seeking equivalency for the Deposit out of the Normal Course of Events provisions, and the combined sewer overflow reports will continue to go to the federal government.
The Window featured updates from Health Canada on activities related to drinking water quality. One major achievement is the creation of the Canadian Network for Public Health Intelligence. This database is only available to public health officials and tracks information on boil water orders including cause, duration and location. While not all provinces are participating at this time, there is a goal to have cross-country coverage. Health Canada has also recently released version 2 of the Guidance for Providing Safe Drinking Water in Areas of Federal Jurisdiction, while specifically written for the management of systems on federal land including parks, border crossings etc., it contains some excellent guidance especially for small and micro-systems.
Statistics Canada will be expanding their surveying activities to include not only water treatment facilities but also wastewater. They are in the beginning stages of survey development and have reached out to CWWA to identify key data gaps. Our Wastewater and Stormwater Committee has already provided feedback, but suggestions from our entire membership is welcome.
The second day of the Window on Ottawa featured presentations from our technical committees, updating on their activities over the past year, as well as topics of more national interest like the City of Calgary's response to the flooding in southern Alberta and the federal government's initiatives to protect critical infrastructure.
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