Housing developer Tom Jarvis has spent more than five years trying to break ground on a 900-home development in Springwater Township, north of Barrie, Ont. The project survived planning hurdles and rezoning battles, but its biggest obstacle was a lack of municipal sewer capacity. Rather than wait 10 years for the municipality to expand its wastewater infrastructure, Jarvis is bypassing public systems entirely by partnering with Global Environmental Liquid Ltd. (GEL), a startup proposing to finance, operate and own the subdivision’s communal wastewater system. If approved, he estimates construction could begin within two years.
Why sewer capacity is a bottleneck for housing
Federal and provincial governments continue to promise hundreds of thousands of new homes, but those homes require roads, pipes, pumping stations and treatment facilities long before anyone can move in. Developers, municipalities and policymakers are increasingly noticing that housing growth is colliding with aging water and wastewater infrastructure, forcing difficult questions about how new expensive pieces of infrastructure will be financed, built and, ultimately, owned.
“You can’t build a house without a foundation,” Jarvis said. “That house needs to be connected to water and sewer first.”
Rising costs of centralized systems
For example, a $1.94-billion project in the York region north of Toronto to transport sewage to treatment facilities near Lake Ontario replaced a long-planned local treatment plant, highlighting the growing cost of traditional centralized systems as municipalities try to accommodate new housing growth. The scale of the challenge is reflected in York Regional Council’s request earlier this month for $1.74 billion in provincial government funding to help advance the multi-phase project without placing the full burden on local taxpayers.
Interest in decentralized wastewater systems grows
John Levie, vice-president of engineering at Ottawa-based Clearford Water Systems Inc., which designs and operates communal water and wastewater systems, said interest in decentralized servicing models has increased over the past year. He estimates inquiries from developers and other groups have jumped by roughly 40 per cent to 50 per cent, with calls increasingly focused on how alternative wastewater systems can help unlock stalled projects.
Levie said he has also been contacted by several companies that had never previously worked in the sector, but are now exploring communal wastewater opportunities. “It’s usually timing,” he said. “They don’t want to wait. If a municipal plant is at capacity, they don’t want to wait 10 or 15 years; they want to start now.”
Infrastructure deficits in smaller communities
Levie said municipalities across Canada face significant infrastructure deficits, particularly in smaller and rural communities, since many of the existing systems were built decades ago with government grants and tax revenues that are no longer readily available. Replacing or expanding them can carry price tags far beyond what smaller municipalities can comfortably absorb.
