New Water Rates for Businesses and the Industrial Sector

Longueuil is implementing a new water rate structure that will generate several million dollars annually. The measure will affect large consumers, such as industrial and commercial buildings, and will be used to fund infrastructure maintenance.

Henri Ouellette-Vézina, La Presse

Updated on November 2

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This was announced Monday by Mayor Catherine Fournier’s administration, which is following the lead of several other major cities, such as Montreal, Laval, and Gatineau.

Approximately 20 percent of Longueuil’s roughly 2,300 industrial and commercial establishments will be affected—specifically, those whose water consumption exceeds the volume for which they already pay through their municipal taxes. A rate of $0.8658 per cubic meter will be imposed on them, in accordance with the “user-pays” principle. This rate will be indexed annually.

The process will be implemented gradually. Starting this fall, the 430 affected property owners will receive a “symbolic” bill—one they won’t have to pay—but which will give them an idea of the additional amount they’ll need to pay. The process will be repeated in the spring of 2027, and the following year, they will be required to pay 50% of the rate.

It is not until 2029 that the first full payment is expected to be made. This entire process, which will be officially approved in the next budget in the coming weeks, is expected to generate 2.5 million annually for the city’s coffers.

“Drinking water is an essential resource that we must collectively protect for future generations. With this new rate structure, we are once again making a clear choice to encourage more responsible use of this limited resource, while asking those who consume the most to contribute more,” explained Mayor Catherine Fournier.

As for the rest, his office assures that no new water tax is planned in the short or medium term for residential buildings, as is the case in Montreal.

Some catching up to do

According to^{Ms. Fournier} , Longueuil is thus responding to “government calls to reduce drinking water consumption.” In its Quebec Drinking Water Conservation Strategy, the province of Quebec is indeed asking cities to aim for a 20 percent reduction in the amount of water distributed per capita compared to 2015.

“As we know, our water infrastructure is in need of maintenance and requires significant investment to be upgraded, repaired, and replaced. This new rate structure will provide us with additional resources to address these needs,” noted the city official.

In Longueuil, “projects for expansion, upgrades to meet current standards, and new infrastructure require investments estimated at more than 2.3 billion over a 10-year period,” according to a pre-budget brief submitted in early 2026.

"These significant investments are essential to ensure the construction of the housing needed to restore affordability and accommodate the projected population growth," the City of Longueuil emphasized in the document.

The project to modernize and expand the Rive-Sud Wastewater Treatment Plant weighs heavily in the balance, with estimated costs of approximately $1.1 billion. This major facility treats wastewater from Longueuil, Boucherville, Saint-Lambert, and Brossard, among other cities.

In 2022, construction work at this treatment plant led to the discharge of hundreds of millions of liters of untreated wastewater into the St. Lawrence River. This is still far less than the discharge carried out by the City of Montreal in 2015, which had attracted public attention. At the time, there was a risk that 8 billion liters of untreated wastewater would be discharged.

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