First a water main broke in Calgary in June, forcing residents to reduce their water consumption. Then another burst last week, this time in Montreal, flooding homes and streets and forcing evacuations.
Experts say infrastructure across Canada is aging — so how are the City of Windsor’s water management systems holding up?
Pretty well, according to the city’s chief engineer and commissioner of infrastructure services, David Simpson. He says the last review of Windsor’s infrastructure showed most of it is in good shape.
“The majority of our assets there are adequately performing, doing the job they’re supposed to do. And they’re around their mid stage of expected service life,” said Simpson.
Only four per cent of the city’s total storm water and sewer infrastructure is in “very poor condition,” according to a 2022 snapshot of the city’s facilities.
“Those assets are either closely approaching or [are] beyond their expected service life,” said Simpson. Those parts are highest on the list for replacement or fixes.
Underground pipes and sewers in the city, which are expected to last between 80 and 100 years, are about 60 years old on average. Wastewater treatment plants in the city are about 50 years old and most of the storm water infrastructure is about 43 years old on average.
Some areas of the city that are older, like the Riverside area, have older infrastructure and are therefore at “slightly higher” risk for problems, too, according to Simpson.
While the pipe that burst in Montreal was supposed to last 10 more years, Simpson says the City of Windsor does regular inspections and cleanings of infrastructure to diagnose problems and avoid accidents.
City infrastructure held up despite heavy rain
Despite heavy rain events in Windsor this summer, which caused flooding in cities like Toronto, Windsor’s infrastructure has held up well, according to Simpson.
Only minor pooling on roadways was reported earlier in August when 50 millimetres of rainfall was forecasted for the area.
“For the most part, the majority of our storm water and drainage systems were keeping up with the magnitude and intensity of that rainfall,” Simpson told CBC News earlier this month. “It’s been a good test today of our capacity to manage.
CBC Windsor looks back at the flood of 2016, which ravaged homes and neighbourhoods, changing the way we think about rain.
Long term funding an issue
But there are possible problems on the horizon. Simpson says Windsor, like many municipalities, faces an infrastructure funding deficit — which could cause trouble if the shortfall keeps up.
“There is still an ongoing … funding gap between what we forecasted as necessary infrastructure upgrades … compared to what our available budget funding or infrastructure reserve levels are at,” said Simpson.
There’s a $30 to $40 million annual shortfall, according to Simpson, based on how much he expects the city will need to invest within 10 to 20 years to keep the city’s infrastructure in good repair.
Simpson says the city continues to work with the provincial government to get grant funding for these kinds of investments on the horizon.
“We’ve got a really good start on all of this,” adds Simpson. “But for all of this to truly be sustainable, it will take increasing funding over time to keep pace.”
Matti Siemiatycki, director of the Infrastructure Institute at the University of Toronto, spoke to CBC’s Front Burner about why cities across the country seem to be crumbling — and what can be done about it.
Across the country, higher levels of government will have to step in and help municipalities pay for the high price of infrastructure enhancements, according to experts like John Gamble, president of the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies of Canada.
“Infrastructure is capital-intensive and it’s hard to put that tax burden on the lowest level of government, which is why we need the three levels of government to get together on this,” Gamble told CBC News earlier this month.