No images? Click here
News Splash
Canadian Water Network's
Quarterly Newsletter
CEO Update
Welcome to the December 2023 edition of Canadian Water Network’s (CWN) News Splash. What a quarter it has been – CWN is firing on all cylinders!
Most exciting has been the return to our in-person Blue Cities conference, where we hosted 200 water and public health enthusiasts, held two national dialogues on pressing issues of the day, sang a song to the spirit of water led by Grandmother Dale, and got advice on equity and Mpox from drag queen Sunshine Glitterchild.
Over the Fall, our team completed the Indigenous Canada course offered by the University of Alberta. Our team also convened eight online events, held a Consortium leaders’ meeting with special guest Kelly Gillis, deputy minister of Infrastructure Canada, and launched our newest program area focused on water and climate.
Phew, those were a busy few months! A sincere thank you to the CWN team, our Board of Directors, funders, sponsors and strategic partners for making this Fall so vibrant and productive.
Industry Perspective
Bridging the gap between water utilities and public health
By Armando LaCivita, business development manager at Esri Canada.
At the recent Blue Cities conference in Toronto, which typically focuses on water utility concerns, Canadian Water Network extended invitations to individuals from the public health sphere. This infusion led to new health-related topics, such as increased wastewater surveillance as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The extensive spread of COVID-19 demanded immediate action from public health officials, scientists and society at large to comprehend its impact locally and globally. Determining the infection status by testing individuals on a large scale posed challenges, being expensive and impractical for sizeable populations. The use of wastewater detection proved to be an excellent alternative to understanding the spread of the disease.
This cross-pollination of municipal divisions at the Blue Cities conference demonstrated the potential for data collaboration. In saying so, both water utilities and public health units can benefit from using GIS technology while ensuring each department is responsible for their own data. The opportunity lies in the GIS acting as a bridge between departmental silos by facilitating organization-wide accessibility.
Blue Cities News
After a three-year hiatus, CWN's flagship Blue Cities 2023 conference was bigger and better than ever. Drawing 200 participants from across Canada, the event unfolded at the Chelsea Hotel in downtown Toronto. The conference focused on topics related to municipal water management and public health protection.
Notably, 70 percent of Blue Cities attendees held pivotal decision-making roles. Half of all attendees held senior positions, such as CEO and director, while 20 percent of all attendees were emerging leaders (e.g., managers) poised to ascend to senior roles in the coming years.
Thought Leader Interview
We had an opportunity to connect with Don Iveson, former mayor of Edmonton and co-chair of the Taskforce on Climate and Housing. He shares his thought leadership on Canada’s colliding crises, the housing crisis and the climate crisis, and shows a positive way forward.
Staffing Updates
Over the last quarter, we’ve had several positive staffing changes. We welcomed Meghan Ewing, our new program coordinator. Meghan is supporting CWN’s water and communities program area and water and climate program area.
In our water and communities program area, we were delighted to welcome Kim Jusek back from maternity leave. Since returning, Kim has been promoted and is now managing our Canadian Municipal Water Consortium. Sandra Cooke will continue to provide strategic oversight to the Canadian Municipal Water Consortium as the new director of communities and climate.
In our water and health program area, Talia Glickman has been promoted to program manager for our Wastewater-based Surveillance (WBS) Program. Our WBS program also welcomed Lesley Dyck as the engagement and knowledge mobilization consultant.
In addition, congratulations go to Amanda Sider for being promoted to the finance and operations coordinator position.
A big thank you goes out to Dee Tosto for serving as our events manager in the lead-up to Blue Cities, and Liana Kreamer for assisting with marketing the event.
We would also like to provide our best wishes to Deborah Van Dyk, former manager of the WBS program, and Jennifer Cowie, former corporate events manager. They have both moved on to new opportunities.
Water and Communities
Update from the Canadian Municipal Water Consortium
We are pleased to present the latest update from CWN's Canadian Municipal Water Consortium, a national network of utility leaders who share a common goal of advancing municipal water management.
The Consortium Leadership Group convened in Toronto ahead of Blue Cities in October. Close to 30 leaders representing 15 municipalities and utilities from across Canada gathered to discuss needs and opportunities for delivering resilient water services given the compounding challenges of climate change, rapid growth and socioeconomic conditions.
Participants exchanged insights with senior Infrastructure Canada officials about effectively aligning federal funding with municipal water systems’ needs. Meeting outcomes included a better understanding of shared challenges related to integrating resilience across water utilities and the need for capital delivery process innovation. Participants also discussed approaches for equitably financing infrastructure and prioritizing strategic investments for long-term benefits.
Water and Health
Empowering public health practitioners through wastewater-based surveillance
At CWN, our collaboration with the National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCCID) is instrumental in empowering public health practitioners through our Wastewater-based Surveillance (WBS) Program. This initiative supports peer learning and knowledge sharing for public health practitioners, particularly when it comes to communicating and interpreting WBS data.
In September, program participants and a wider audience joined a webinar hosted by CWN and NCCID on wastewater-based surveillance. Dr. Amy Kirby, the national wastewater surveillance system lead at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, highlighted the current landscape of wastewater-based surveillance in the United States. We also discussed considerations and best practices for communicating wastewater data that supports effective public health decision-making for both experts and the public.
Water and Climate
Through our water and climate program area, we’re undertaking a two-year project to understand the impact of climate change on water availability across the Canadian Prairies.
This project is being undertaken in collaboration with our partners ClimateWest and Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative (PARC), and support from the RBC Foundation through RBC Tech for Nature. Our project aims to provide governments and the agricultural industry with the science and tools to improve water and crop efficiencies and resiliency to achieve climate adaptation goals in the Prairies. As part of the engagement process and to ensure the applicability of the project results, CWN is working on assembling an expert panel and an end-user panel. When these panels are convened in the early part of 2024, they will lend their expertise, provide insights and guide the project’s outcome.
CWN’s Canadian Municipal Water Consortium has also kicked off a peer-to-peer Strategic Sharing Group focused on municipal stormwater management. Using a climate lens, participants will address developing a business case for stormwater management and climate adaptation. Participants will also develop a business case for weaving grey, green and blue infrastructure to achieve co-benefits and increased resiliency in our communities.
Federal Updates
Indigenous Services minister tables to Bill that aims to meet First Nations needs
Patty Hajdu, minister of Indigenous services, has introduced a Bill to establish new proposed safe drinking water and wastewater legislation in consultation with First Nations.
The Act reflects the Government of Canada’s pledge to craft legislation that replaces the repealed 2013 Safe Drinking Water for First Nations Act.
Government of Canada tables legislation related to Canada Water Agency
On November 30, the federal government tabled the Canada Water Agency Act as part of Bill C-59.
This Bill enacts parts of the recently tabled Economic Statement.
Part 5 of C-59 establishes the Canada Water Agency as a stand-alone entity.
Government of Canada helps local communities control navigation on waterways
The Government of Canada is making the regulatory process for navigable waters easier and more efficient in response to requests made by local communities.
More specifically, the process for asking the federal government to restrict the use of boats on lakes and rivers is being streamlined for all orders of government.
 |