Water balance by country · Updated 2026-09-30
Water loss audits in Canada: provincial requirements, AWWA M36 in metric and the ILI
How Canadian municipalities run an AWWA M36-based water audit in metric units for provincial water conservation and asset-management requirements, with cold-climate specifics and typical ILI results.
Calculator settings for Canada
- Units
- Metric (m³, km, metres head or kPa ÷ 9.81)
- Benchmark category
- Standard
- Meter location
- Inside the house (basement) — 15–25 m service pipe; some unmetered flat-rate cities
- Supply
- Continuous
- Reporting
- Provincial: Ontario Water Opportunities Act / O.Reg. 588 asset management, Alberta EPEA & AUMA audits, BC Water Sustainability Act, Quebec Stratégie d'économie d'eau potable (annual bilan)
Canada uses the AWWA M36 water audit in metric units. Quebec's Stratégie québécoise d'économie d'eau potable requires every municipality to submit an annual water-use report including a full IWA water balance and to meet loss targets; Ontario's asset-management regulation and Alberta's water conservation plans push in the same direction. The Canadian Water and Wastewater Association and the National Research Council have both published M36-based guidance.
Canadian specifics
- Meters are inside the house, so the service pipe from the property line to the meter is long — 15–25 m is normal. This term alone can add 30% or more to the UARL; do not leave it at zero.
- Several cities (parts of Montréal, Vancouver's older stock, some Ontario towns) still have unmetered flat-rate residential customers. Estimate consumption from metered comparators at 250–350 L/person/day and carry a wide band.
- Frost-related bursts make winter the peak leakage season; a balance year that spans two winters evenly is best.
- Bleeders — deliberate running of taps to prevent freezing — are authorised consumption (usually unbilled unmetered) and can be significant in prairie and northern communities.
- Pressure is often quoted in kPa: divide by 9.81 to get metres.
Typical results
Validated audits in Ontario and Alberta commonly show ILIs of 2–5 and real losses of 80–200 litres per connection per day; Quebec's programme has driven many municipalities from over 30% losses toward the 20% target. The calculator's Excel export lines up with the M36 worksheet fields that the provincial programmes are built on.