Water infrastructure grows, but more investments needed
Statistics Canada’s latest look into the development and health of the country’s water infrastructure reveals that not only did the total volume of assets in the sector grow between 2018 and 2020, but the pace of construction of new assets in 2019 and 2020 was significantly greater than the average year between 2000 and 2018.
Canada's Core Public Infrastructure Survey measures the stock, condition and performance of assets owned by Canadian governments. The latest data released look at the state of water infrastructure. It finds that in 2020, public systems were composed of 4,126 wastewater treatment plants and lagoon systems, 3,342 water treatment facilities, 472,488 kilometres of underground pipes, and 284,827 kilometres of culverts and open ditches, as well as numerous pump stations, storage facilities and other assets.
The pace of construction of water infrastructure was an average of 10,069 kilometres of underground pipe installed per year in 2019 and 2020. That figure is about 31 percent higher than the average of 6,844 kilometres per year installed between 2000 and 2018.
That said, however, more work is needed.
The survey found that municipally-owned assets, which account for the vast majority of those assets surveyed, require a significant amount of capital investments. According to the Annual Capital and Repair Expenditures Survey, about 28 percent of total capital spending on infrastructure by municipal, local and regional governments in 2020 was on water and sewer infrastructure.
Even with those investments and the accelerating pace of construction in recent years, data shows that the remaining useful life of water and sewage infrastructure assets declined from 2017 to 2021.
The survey found that significant portion of linear water infrastructure was over 50 years old in 2020. In fact, close to one in five kilometres of water, sewer and stormwater pipes (86,533 kilometres out of 472,488) was reaching the end of its useful life, having been built prior to 1970. The average expected useful life of new underground pipes installed in 2020 ranged from 50 to 73 years.
At 43 percent, stormwater management facilities such as ponds, wetlands and infiltration basins had the largest share of total inventory built since 2010. Over one-quarter of the inventory of wastewater non-linear assets except lagoon systems (storage tanks, pump stations, lift stations and treatment plants), and of the inventory of drinking water pump stations and water treatment facilities were constructed between 2010 and 2020.
Unlike most public infrastructure, water, sewer and stormwater pipes are hidden underground, making it challenging to assess conditions. In 2020, the condition of 12 percent of the length of pipes was unknown, compared with 18 percent in 2018. Almost three out of five kilometres were rated in good or very good condition in 2020, up from slightly more than half in 2018.