We just finished part 4 of the Window on Water (WoW) series and we couldn’t be happier.  Each session was well-received and reached out to many more delegates than our annual Window on Ottawa.  Our live Window event was a very unique opportunity to engage with senior federal policy makers and had become CWWA’s ‘signature’ event for almost 30 years.  Our mission is to engage the federal government and to advocate for good national policies

WEFTEC ran virtually this year from October 5th to 9th.  CWWA partnered with Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade to host a morning session.  The session was designed for Canadian businesses looking to expand their offerings into the U.S. market.  

CWWA’s Annual General Meeting  is scheduled for November 9 at 2:00 pm EST. Due to the cancellation of the National Water and Wastewater Conference, the 2020 AGM will be held virtually.  

WEFTEC kicked off this year with a collection of videos titled 24 hours of Water.  The concept was a virtual world tour to the many partner nations involved with the Water Environment Federation.  Canada was one of the very first stops on that tour and we had a lot of fun producing a short video for this event.  

Collaborative mitigation, adaptation and resilience planning is required to “future-proof” the water sector against the many significant challenges and risks over the coming decades. This Webinar Workshop Series will examine vulnerabilities that must be addressed by collaborative planning on a local, regional, national and global scale pertaining to black swan events and overall water sector security. Applying a scenario planning approach, we will ‘red team’ the plausibility and solution space.

CWWA is excited to announce our NWWC webinar series, exploring sustainable utilities.

Earlier this year, CWN with support from the Insurance Bureau of Canada undertook a study on how to frame and structure a new Canadian Centre for Climate Information and Analytics (C3IA) so that it would be useful for, and used by, municipal decision makers. 

A summary of the study's insights and the full report is now available, as well as a complementary study completed by Smart Prosperity Institute on the needs of the finance sector.

Partners for Action is an applied research network dedicated to reducing the risk of flood damage and advancing flood resiliency in Canadian communities. In 2020,Partners for Action conducted a bilingual national survey with the objective of hearing directly from Canadians about their opinions on flooding. As follow-on to our 2016 survey, P4A invited 2,500 Canadians across all 10 provinces, living in designated flood risk areas, to share their views on issues such as flood risk, property buyouts for flood risk management, responsibility for flood prevention, and how the costs of flood recovery should be distributed. The Partners have released a report summarizing the results of the Survey. It gives an incredible insight into the resiliency of Canadian communities. 

The Water Leadership Institute program is aimed at educating and training emerging leaders and providing them with opportunities to build strong, lasting relationships within the water sector. The intensive program allows participants to engage in management training and leadership development through a blended learning approach that includes examining complex challenges facing the water and wastewater industries and networking with public and private sector practitioners. There are 291 alumni of the program, which is in its ninth year.

On October 10, 2020 the Government published in Canada Gazette Part 1, a proposed Order to add “plastic manufactured items” to Schedule 1, the List of Toxic Substances, under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA).

The Minister of the Environment has concluded with Saskatchewan the “Administrative agreement between the Government of Saskatchewan and the Government of Canada Regarding the Administration of the Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations in Saskatchewan” pursuant to subsection 4.1(4) of the Fisheries Act. No comments were received at the conclusion of a 60-day public comment period on the proposed Administrative Agreement.

At this point Administrative agreements are in effect with Saskatchewan and New Brunswick and equivalency agreements have been signed with Quebec and the Yukon. 

This annual report highlights the work of the Committee to manage transboundary watersin a way that protects the ecological integrity of the aquatic ecosystem. The latest annual report, posted on September 28, 2020 is now available.

On September 10, 2020, the Government of the Northwest Territories is implementing a wastewater testing program designed to identify the presence or absence of COVID-19. According to the government, collecting this information can serve as an early warning system, as it uncovers trends of COVID-19 in the community four to ten days earlier than clinical data would by detecting the presence of the virus in asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic populations. The effort will be led by the Office of the Chief Public Health Officer in partnership with Municipal and Community Affairs, and Environment and Natural Resources. As a key partner, the Public Health Agency of Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory is providing in-kind testing. An investment of $100,000 from Indigenous Services Canada allowed the territory to purchase the necessary testing equipment and to coordinate the delivery of this program. Several member citiees have also implemented COVID-monitoring programs, which are complementing the in-person testing and helping identify trends.

A new Saskatchewan First Nations Water Association has been formed. The Association is: *A Non Profit, First Nations focused water association that aims to provide a professional network of operators in remote locations to network, train, enhance skills and assist with maintenance of water and wastewater systems. They support operators in achieving regulatory compliance and work with researchers to investigate industry innovations and best practices as well as promote health and safety in the workplace.* The newly formed  Association has created 6 online learning courses.

New York Times

Experts are warning that existing water safety rules are not suitable to a world where wildfires destroy more residential areas than in the past.

Living Architecture Monitor

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned everything upside down. The socio-economic benefits that people took for granted before are now being threatened, and the economic, infrastructure and environmental issues are now only too obvious to be ignored.

AP News

Comedian John Oliver made a secret trip to Connecticut last week to help cut the ribbon on a sign naming a sewage treatment plant in his honor.

Water Canada

As governments across Canada and around the world rally to address the coronavirus pandemic and the economic catastrophe it has unleashed, there is a slower-burning crisis that still needs attention. Water contamination and shortages have the potential to be far more devastating than our current situation if we don’t manage this resource better.

Michigan Live

Community members, local officials and supporters celebrated the grand opening of a free water testing lab in Flint that fosters STEM education, job-skill training and trust in the community amid the Flint water crisis.

Associated Press

President Donald Trump on Tuesday created what he called a “subcabinet” for federal water issues, with a mandate that includes water-use changes sought by corporate farm interests and oil and gas.

Ottawa Citizen

Samples taken from Ottawa’s sewage treatment plant show the concentration of COVID-19 in the city’s wastewater has doubled in the past month and is ten times higher than it was in June.

The findings mirror the spike in cases seen in the city since the second wave of the pandemic began. Ottawa is considered a provincial hotspot.