Regional councillor calling for hybrid risk management system for water issue
Posted Jun 8, 2026 03:59:23 PM.
Last Updated Jun 8, 2026 03:59:33 PM.
Waterloo Regional Council is inching forward as it works to address the water capacity problem identified last year.
Last week, seven hours of debate resulted in minimal progress on the issue of risk management. The concern is over how much water needs to be held in reserve to address unplanned emergencies and how that can be maintained while allowing development to restart.
Council was presented three options, with staff recommending the second.
That would keep the reserve capacity at the staff-recommended 20 percent.
Regional Councillor Michael Harris tabled a motion last week that would adopt a hybrid of the three options that he hopes would re-ignite housing development while also keeping enough water set aside in case of emergency.
Harris was a guest on The Mike Farwell Show, where he said he believes the reserve capacity could be cut to allow more development projects to get underway.
“I think, added on top of accelerated conservation measures, we can open up that capacity while preserving the system by giving the green light to projects that are shovel-ready.”
Part of Harris’ motion also included a call for the Provincial Land and Development Facilitators office to look at the recommended resiliency numbers and report back to council. Harris hopes that information will be available when council meets next week.
“I’m hopeful on June 17 that work will be fast-tracked and done for council to approve some sort of hybrid to continue the work to get our system back up and running, but also open up development, knowing that some of these projects can take years and years to come online. But, we have to balance both and get our economy moving.”
The Waterloo Region Home Builders’ Association’s June Industry Impact Report shows that over 5,000 approved home builds have been stalled, putting over 1,500 jobs at risk. And, over $500,000,000 in private investment has been frozen since the de facto development freeze was initiated in December 2025.
