By Jessica Reynen, Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine
Summer 2010

A recent report, released by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities has revealed that Canadian Municipalities are reaching a breaking point. Over the past 20 years growing responsibilities and reduced revenues have caused the deficit in municipal infrastructure to grow to approximately $120 billion dollars and it will continue to grow by 2 billion each year as assets reach the end of their service life and repair and replacement costs increase.

Evidence of how this kind of decline could affect us has surfaced over the past few years. In 2000 following a period of heavy rain, Walkerton, Ontario’s water was sending residents to the hospital with E Coli poisoning. Only 11 months later, the City of North Battleford, Saskatchewan experienced a drinking water outbreak of gastroenteritis making around 5,800 to 7,100 people from the area ill. Incidents such as this illustrate the consequences that are possible when services such as water and wastewater treatment fall behind on the list of government priorities.

Unfortunately, many municipalities do not have the capacity to fund upgrades or new facilities on their own, leaving it up to Infrastructure Canada to foot the bill. So far they have created the Building Canada Fund to assist Canadian municipalities in upgrading and replacing their existing infrastructure. This plan has identified environmental issues such as clean drinking water, wastewater treatment, and solid waste management as a priority for Canadian municipalities in the future.

However, while this initiative secures funding for new facilities, it does not examine the labour market required to work in these facilities. For this, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada sought out ECO Canada (Environmental Careers Organization).

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