The Ontario Water Consortium (OWC) is excited to announce the submission of a proposal for funding to establish the Innovating Water for Ontario’s Growth (IWOG) program. This initiative seeks to tackle critical challenges in water and wastewater infrastructure driven by rapid urbanization and industrial demands, aiming to enhance water management and support sustainable development across Ontario.

The IWOG program addresses the pressing need for advanced water and wastewater technologies to manage urban growth, aging infrastructure, and environmental pressures. Canada’s housing shortage and affordability crisis have further strained water systems, emphasizing the need for reliable, robust and resilient infrastructure to support sustainable urban expansion, protect public health, and foster economic growth.

Recent infrastructure failures, such as water main breaks in Calgary and Montreal and extreme rainfall in Toronto that caused sewage overflows, highlight vulnerabilities in existing systems and underscore the urgency of modernization. By fostering technological innovation and systemic improvements, the IWOG program will support Ontario in addressing these challenges while amplifying the province’s $1 billion commitment to water infrastructure renewal.

The program is structured around two streams:

Technology Advancement and Adoption
This stream will fund the research, development, and initial demonstration of advanced technologies to tackle critical water challenges. It focuses on transitioning innovative solutions from development to market, ensuring they are ready for practical application and commercialization. The stream will directly address the urgent need for scalable, market-ready solutions to meet the challenges of urban growth, aging infrastructure, and environmental pressures. It will also include validation and de-risking strategies to facilitate the adoption of new technologies across municipalities and industries.

Technology Platforms and Innovation Assets
This component will focus on developing the infrastructure and testing platforms necessary to advance and scale innovative solutions designed to address critical water challenges. By creating testbeds and innovation hubs, this stream will enable the evaluation and optimization of new technologies across different use cases and geographic locations. This infrastructure will provide critical support for technology development, ensuring that solutions can be effectively assessed, validated, and scaled for broader adoption by end-users, including municipalities, industries, and communities.

By accelerating the modernization and optimization of water systems with advanced technologies, the IWOG program will help municipalities meet housing demands. It will facilitate the development and deployment of innovative solutions leveraging advanced sciences such as artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and the Internet of Things. OWC will play a crucial role in ensuring the success of the IWOG program by fostering partnerships between SMEs, academic institutions, and research organizations to accelerate the market-readiness of these technologies.

The multi-year, multi-million-dollar IWOG program is designed to help advance innovation by commercializing new products and services, generating intellectual property, supporting SMEs, and driving job creation and retention. It will drive investments in the tech sector, from advancing technologies to innovation infrastructure, such as test beds, while activating partnerships among SMEs, municipal water utilities, and post-secondary institution across Southern Ontario.

About the Ontario Water Consortium

Founded over a decade ago, OWC is the only sector support organization in Ontario for water innovation. OWC has mobilized over $90 million in project funding, catalyzed 80+ technology projects, supported over 350 industry jobs, and benefited more than 100 academic partners. OWC’s mission is to drive the evolution of the water sector through collaboration, innovation, and strategic partnerships, addressing both current and emerging water management challenges.