To help further reduce water waste in the City of Cranbrook, and to improve leak detection across the entire water system, changes are coming to the enforcement of the city’s Waterworks Bylaw.

City council Jan. 13 supported changes to the execution of the Waterworks Bylaw, which already has provisions for meters, but this requirement had not been enforced. This exercise stems from a resolution of council from February 2024 directing administration to begin water meter readiness activities and required water meter readiness provisions to be installed as part of new developments and new or upgraded water services.

This change is focused on new buildings like homes, duplexes and any building (new or existing) that requires new, upgraded, or replaced water services, or where building or plumbing permits impact plumbing but do not require upgrades to the existing water service to the property.

These proposed bylaw changes are also designed to require developers to pay to install the water meters and water meter pits now instead of retrofitting the system later at a much higher cost.

Cranbrook is one of the largest communities in B.C. to not have water meters, but these current changes are not for universal metering – at least not yet.

City staff will be bringing forward options for universal metering to council for discussion sometime in 2025.

These proposed bylaw changes will also not impact water customer billing or water utility rates immediately, but that may change if a complete plan for universal metering is in place, at the discretion of council.

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