Navigating Turbulent Waters: The Politics of Municipal Water Governance in Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and Hamilton

Abstract

In Canada, water utilities are traditionally managed by municipal governments. Declining financial support from senior levels of government, public service reforms, and provincial policy interests in the 1990s caused Canadian municipalities to consider reforming their local water utilities. The current water governance literature argues that local financial circumstances condition the types of public policy decisions and governance reforms municipalities make, making these decisions contextual. However, amid similar political and economic circumstances, municipal governments in Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and Hamilton chose distinctly different governance models. Calgary considered privatizing its water utility, later reorganizing its department as a business unit. Edmonton considered privatization, only to corporatize its water utility alongside its electric utility. In Toronto, the city considered a municipal corporation, and a quasi-independent service board, only to keep its water utility a separate business unit. Hamilton signed a private contract, only to recreate a municipal water department after the contract ended. I argue that local dynamics conditions the decision-making process in municipalities, where politicians must balance the ideas and interests of local actors when making policy decisions. This thesis then, examines the decision-making process in each city between 1990 and 2005, demonstrating that water reform, and municipal public policy more broadly, is both contentious and politically driven.