1001 Smart Cities

Permanent project revision

Montreal Non-Residential Water Metering, After the Cancelled Contract

Revision 2026-08-21-source-dates · effective 2026-07-26

Current revision. This is the snapshot used by the live entity page.

unreviewed

Record the publication date of each source that states one; a source that publishes no date is marked null, and one that shows only a revision carries `updated` instead.

sha256:3c5ec1bff8e6ede4b5d658400d3fda7972dae52fe05556b3bddfdf957d6141c2
All revisions → Current entity page →

Change set

  • replace /snapshot/projectFingerprint — Updated projectFingerprint to the current sourced project record.
  • replace /snapshot/sources — Updated sources to the current sourced project record.
9
of 9 claims mapped
8
source dossiers
4
publication dates recorded
0
archives linked
0
exact locators
0
content captures hashed

Claims, one by one

The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.

Claim 1 clm-00d87f3658f66f62 quantitative
Montreal awarded a consortium of Dessau and Simard-Beaudry a roughly CA$356M, 25-year contract in late 2007 to meter non-residential buildings and optimise the water network
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The account of the civil claim dates the award of the $356M contract to the GENIeau consortium to 2007 and its termination to 2009, naming Simard-Beaudry among the defendants.
Caveat
The collusion the city describes in that claim is an allegation in its own pleading and is not stated as fact in the entry.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Journal Metro — Montreal poursuit les acteurs presumes du scandale des compteurs d'eau (2018)
Claim 2 clm-7fc3ddda68f409ab quantitative
Auditor General Jacques Bergeron judged the tender 'trop vite, trop gros et trop cher' (too fast, too big, too expensive) and the city cancelled it in September 2009
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The 2012 piece records the 2009 cancellation of the $356M contract, which the auditor general had judged 'trop vite, trop gros et trop cher'. The CBC report dates the cancellation to September 2009 by Mayor Gerald Tremblay following Bergeron's report, alongside the dismissal of the city manager and the corporate affairs director.
Caveat
The CBC page returned an error to automated fetching; outlet, headline and content were confirmed through search, and the year and causal link are corroborated by two Journal Metro pieces.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Journal Metro — Compteurs d'eau: Montreal lance un appel d'offres (29 June 2012)
  2. CBC News — Mayor cancels Montreal's $355M water meter contract (2009)
Claim 3 clm-2875eaa5ddfd2911 quantitative
arbitration then cost Montreal more than CA$13M, which it sued to recover in 2018
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The 2012 arbitration ordered the city to pay, and the city's 2018 claim seeks '10,2 M$ en compensation et une penalite de 3,1 M$, plus les frais d'arbitrage et d'experts, pour un total d'un peu plus de 14 M$'.
Caveat
The entry states 'more than CA$13M' — the sum of the compensation and penalty — rather than the article's slightly larger total, which includes arbitration and expert fees.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Journal Metro — Montreal poursuit les acteurs presumes du scandale des compteurs d'eau (2018)
Claim 4 clm-dcce984a75103bb2 quantitative
The city restarted in 2012 with three smaller contracts worth about CA$55M
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The replacement programme was let as three separate contracts for '2900 compteurs d'eau pour les industries, commerces et institutions', with 16,200 meters planned by 2018: 'L'ensemble du projet s'eleve a 55 millions $, assume par les etablissements concernes'.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Journal Metro — Compteurs d'eau: Montreal lance un appel d'offres (29 June 2012)
Claim 5 clm-380dfbc16fd959b5 quantitative
by 2023 had fitted roughly 19,500 industrial, commercial and institutional buildings with remote-read meters
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Attributed to the city's own bilan de l'usage de l'eau potable: 'Il aura fallu une dizaine d'annees pour que la Ville de Montreal dote l'ensemble des ICI de compteurs d'eau, pour un total de 19 500 compteurs installes'. The operator page confirms the meters carry remote reading and meet the NSF61 standard.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Journal Metro — Montreal, une ville ou coulent encore trop de dollars (22 April 2023)
  2. Ville de Montreal — Compteurs d'eau
Claim 6 clm-f9fff3d0b528aba0 quantitative
Volumetric billing for those buildings began on 1 January 2023
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The operator page dates the billing layer: 'Depuis le 1er janvier 2023, les immeubles qui sont en partie ou en totalite destines a un usage non residentiel paient une tarification selon le volume d'eau consomme.' The 2026 rates run from $0 per cubic metre below 1,000 m³ to $0.690 above 100,000 m³, and bills follow the year after the meters are read.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Ville de Montreal — Immeubles non residentiels: tarification volumetrique de l'eau
Claim 7 clm-5fd5cade9f29d7e3 quantitative
the city's own data put overconsumption and losses at 30%, the same as in 2015, and its 2021 water-use report rated infrastructure leakage high for the Pierrefonds network and very high for Lachine and Atwater-Charles-J.-Des Baillets
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Both numbers are attributed to the City's bilan de l'usage de l'eau potable: 'Les donnees de la Ville de Montreal montrent que le taux de surconsommation et de pertes, qui s'eleve actuellement a 30%, est le meme qu'en 2015', and from the 2021 bilan 'un IFI eleve pour le reseau de Pierrefonds et tres eleve pour ceux de Lachine et Atwater-Charles-J.-Des Baillets'.
Caveat
City figures relayed by the press; the underlying bilan was not directly reachable in this review.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Journal Metro — Montreal, une ville ou coulent encore trop de dollars (22 April 2023)
Claim 8 clm-e2f848592299973a quantitative
Montreal cancelled a CA$356M, 25-year deal and then bought roughly the same meters for about CA$55M over the following decade — proof the original price was the scandal, not the meters
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The $356M contract was awarded in 2007 and terminated in 2009; the replacement was let in 2012 as three contracts totalling $55M borne by the establishments concerned. The metering by-law RCG 07-031 remains in force — the obligation outlived the contract meant to implement it.
Caveat
'Roughly the same meters' is the entry's reading of two scopes described in different documents, not a statement either source makes.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Journal Metro — Montreal poursuit les acteurs presumes du scandale des compteurs d'eau (2018)
  2. Journal Metro — Compteurs d'eau: Montreal lance un appel d'offres (29 June 2012)
  3. Ville de Montreal — Installer un compteur d'eau dans un immeuble non residentiel
Claim 9 clm-68e8ed1966c37528 descriptive
the readings are withheld from the open data as commercially confidential
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The open register is updated monthly and carries meter number, diameter, mechanical or electronic type, operating status, address, borough and obfuscated coordinates — and states its own limit on the same page: 'les consommations liees a ces compteurs ne seront pas publiees', for reasons of industrial confidentiality.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Donnees Montreal — Compteurs d'eau exploites par la Ville de Montreal

Source dossiers and revision state

This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.

unreviewed Revision 2026-08-21-source-dates effective 2026-07-26 · created 2026-08-22

Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.

sha256:3c5ec1bff8e6ede4b5d658400d3fda7972dae52fe05556b3bddfdf957d6141c2
Revision history → Permanent version link → Machine-readable record → Evidence Constitution →
9
of 9 claims mapped
8
source dossiers
4
publication dates recorded
0
archives linked
0
exact locators
0
content captures hashed

Governance facts carried by the record

Operator
Ville de Montreal — Service de l'eau
Actor types
utility
Funding model
public
Funding description
City of Montreal (Service de l'eau)
Cost
≈CA$55M for the 2012 relaunch; the cancelled 2007 contract was ≈CA$356M over 25 years
Ownership
Not recorded
Decision rights
Not recorded
Exit conditions
Not recorded

8 source dossiers

Ville de Montreal — Compteurs d'eau montreal.ca · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-f1479707bacc5958
Publisher
Name not classified · montreal.ca
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Operator page, the obligation and the data layer: 'Tout batiment destine en partie ou en totalite a un usage non residentiel, qu'il soit existant ou a construire, doit etre muni d'un compteur d'eau.' and 'Ils sont munis d'un systeme de lecture a distance et sont conformes au standard NSF61.' (Every wholly or partly non-residential building, existing or to be built, must have a water meter; the meters have a remote-reading system and meet NSF61.) Also states the Quebec drinking-water strategy target of a 20% cut in production by 2025.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Ville de Montreal — Immeubles non residentiels: tarification volumetrique de l'eau montreal.ca · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-8fb1d58f080f2400
Publisher
Name not classified · montreal.ca
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Operator page dating the billing layer: 'Depuis le 1er janvier 2023, les immeubles qui sont en partie ou en totalite destines a un usage non residentiel paient une tarification selon le volume d'eau consomme.' (Since 1 January 2023 non-residential buildings pay by volume consumed.) 2026 rates run from 0 $/m3 below 1,000 m3 to 0,690 $/m3 above 100,000 m3; bills follow the year after the meters are read.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Donnees Montreal — Compteurs d'eau exploites par la Ville de Montreal donnees.montreal.ca · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-9d62083b565dc46e
Publisher
Name not classified · donnees.montreal.ca
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The open register, updated monthly: 'Cette liste contient les compteurs d'eau exploites par le Service de l'eau de la Ville de Montreal.' Fields include meter number, diameter, mechanical or electronic type, operating status, address, borough and obfuscated coordinates. The limit is stated on the same page: 'les consommations liees a ces compteurs ne seront pas publiees' (consumption for these meters will not be published), for reasons of industrial confidentiality.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Ville de Montreal — Installer un compteur d'eau dans un immeuble non residentiel montreal.ca · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-a752f1d56cd1fb7b
Publisher
Name not classified · montreal.ca
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Names the instrument still in force: 'Reglement sur la mesure de la consommation de l'eau dans les ICI — Codification administrative (RCG 07-031)'. The metering by-law outlived the contract meant to implement it.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Journal Metro — Compteurs d'eau: Montreal lance un appel d'offres (29 June 2012) journalmetro.com · 3 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-110b0ff2cb7762b7
Publisher
Name not classified · journalmetro.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2012-06-29
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The replacement programme and the auditor general's verdict in one piece: three separate contracts for '2900 compteurs d'eau pour les industries, commerces et institutions', 16,200 meters planned by 2018, and 'L'ensemble du projet s'eleve a 55 millions $, assume par les etablissements concernes' (the whole project comes to $55M, borne by the establishments concerned). Context given: the 2009 cancellation of the $356M GENIeau contract, which the auditor general had judged 'trop vite, trop gros et trop cher'.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Journal Metro — Montreal poursuit les acteurs presumes du scandale des compteurs d'eau (2018) journalmetro.com · 3 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-07ed4af423e9206b
Publisher
Name not classified · journalmetro.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2018-09-26
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The bill and the civil claim: the 2007 award of a $356M contract to the GENIeau consortium, its 2009 termination after the auditor general's report, the 2012 arbitration ordering the city to pay, and a claim of '10,2 M$ en compensation et une penalite de 3,1 M$, plus les frais d'arbitrage et d'experts, pour un total d'un peu plus de 14 M$'. Defendants named: Frank Zampino, Tony Accurso, Paolo Catania, Simard-Beaudry and Groupe SM. The collusion described is an allegation in the city's pleading.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Journal Metro — Montreal, une ville ou coulent encore trop de dollars (22 April 2023) journalmetro.com · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-a055090865455c52
Publisher
Name not classified · journalmetro.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2023-04-22
Updated
2023-05-04
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Carries the two current numbers, both attributed to the City's bilan de l'usage de l'eau potable: 'Il aura fallu une dizaine d'annees pour que la Ville de Montreal dote l'ensemble des ICI de compteurs d'eau, pour un total de 19 500 compteurs installes' and 'Les donnees de la Ville de Montreal montrent que le taux de surconsommation et de pertes, qui s'eleve actuellement a 30%, est le meme qu'en 2015.' Also, from the 2021 bilan: 'un IFI eleve pour le reseau de Pierrefonds et tres eleve pour ceux de Lachine et Atwater-Charles-J.-Des Baillets.'

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
CBC News — Mayor cancels Montreal's $355M water meter contract (2009) cbc.ca · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-ddb590c9952759b2
Publisher
Name not classified · cbc.ca
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2009-09-22
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The cancellation itself, September 2009: Mayor Gerald Tremblay cancelled the contract after auditor general Jacques Bergeron's report, and dismissed city manager Claude Leger and corporate affairs director Robert Cassius de Linval. Fetch returned 403; outlet, headline and content confirmed through search results, and the year and the causal link are corroborated by the two Journal Metro articles above. La Presse ran the same story on 22 September 2009 ('Tremblay annule le contrat des compteurs d'eau', also 403).

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Known limits of this passport
  • Publisher names and source languages have not yet been classified; domains are recorded without guessing.
  • Existing source notes are descriptive locators, not page- or paragraph-exact citations.
  • A missing archive, publication date or content hash is shown as null rather than inferred.
  • The project-level evidence grade ranks the strongest source in the entry; it is not a truth score for every claim.