Measurement Canada water meter consultation—Introduction

Access to clean, sustainable supplies of water is essential to all Canadians. This is why the Government of Canada has introduced initiatives and programs to reduce water use and support Canadians to lessen their impact on climate change, such as the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program, as well as the Canada Community-Building Fund (formerly known as the Gas Tax Fund), which provide funding to municipalities to update their infrastructure, including replacing water meters or installing new ones within their systems to help control water loss and promote sustainable water use.

Currently, under the Weights and Measures Regulations, water meters are exempt from requiring approval and initial inspection before they are used to determine a customer's water consumption (unlike scales, gas pumps and other measuring devices used in trade).

We are responsible for ensuring that devices used in trade measure accurately, whereas provincial and municipal authorities are responsible for billing practices and establishing the fees customers are charged for water consumption.

To help the Government of Canada achieve its climate change goals and sustain our water supply for future generations, we are looking into possible areas where we could help manufacturers, utilities and end users (e.g. residential home owners) support and promote water conservation through increased accurate measurement of water.

We would like to consult with water meter manufacturers, water distribution utilities and water meter end users to obtain data on current water measurement approaches and water meter billing practices in the Canadian marketplace. Our goal is to ensure that water distribution utilities can use measurement to quickly identify and correct water loss in their systems, and that consumers receive accurate and reliable measurement.

For further information, please visit the Water Meter Consultation web page.