The Bill We Are Leaving Our Children
Five Councils, One Underground Bill
The Bill We Are Leaving Our Children
There is an enormous bill sitting underneath the streets of Greater Victoria.
It is not a theoretical future problem. It is not something that suddenly appeared because engineers started talking about climate change or asset management.
It is the accumulated cost of decades in which sewer and stormwater systems aged faster than they were renewed.
Across Victoria, Saanich, Esquimalt, Oak Bay and View Royal, the working replacement exposure for the public sanitary and stormwater systems alone is approximately $4.81 billion.
Add a realistic planning allowance for aging private sewer laterals and the number rises to roughly $5.3 billion to $5.9 billion.
If most or all of the approximately 52,500 listed laterals eventually require major renewal, the long-term exposure approaches $7 billion.
That does not mean every pipe needs to be dug up tomorrow.
It means the region has allowed an enormous renewal obligation to accumulate.
That is the difference.
The roughly $7-billion problem is not a forecast of something that might happen. It is the accumulated cost of infrastructure that has been allowed to age faster than it has been renewed.
And this is about more than money.
These underground systems carry sewage and stormwater through neighbourhoods and discharge stormwater into creeks, the Gorge Waterway, Portage Inlet, Victoria Harbour and the surrounding Salish Sea.
The CRD continues to monitor bacterial and chemical contamination in stormwater and works with municipalities to identify pollution sources. The storm drain systems themselves are owned and operated by the municipalities. [8]
Old pipes are not the only source of contamination. Road runoff, vehicle wear, industrial and commercial runoff, historical contamination, contaminated sediments, illegal or incorrect connections and private-property defects all contribute.
But deteriorated underground infrastructure, inflow and infiltration, cross-connections and inadequate source control are part of the same problem.
We cannot keep treating them as separate files.
1. Victoria
Victoria has one of the oldest underground municipal systems in the region.
The City's 2026 financial material lists approximately 237 kilometres of sanitary sewer mains, 260 kilometres of storm drains, about 13,775 sewer connections and more than 10,000 storm connections. [1]
The working replacement exposure used in this analysis for Victoria's public sanitary and stormwater systems is approximately:
$1.4 billion
That is before adding the private side of the system.
Earlier municipal information identified approximately 13,676 sewer laterals.
If only half eventually required major renewal at an assumed $20,000 to $40,000 each, the planning allowance would be approximately:
$137 million to $274 million
That places Victoria's combined public-system and half-lateral planning exposure at approximately:
$1.54 billion to $1.67 billion
A broader long-term scenario in which most or all aging laterals eventually require major rehabilitation or replacement pushes Victoria's exposure toward approximately $1.9 billion.
This is not simply a question of whether an individual pipe has collapsed.
For decades, an old urban system has been exposed to root intrusion, cracked pipes, deteriorating joints, groundwater infiltration, cross-connections and increasing loads from redevelopment.
Victoria is spending money on sewer and stormwater infrastructure and has sanitary sewer and stormwater master plans and condition-assessment programs. [1]
But the existence of a plan does not erase the accumulated renewal liability.
VOLWS's recent freedom-of-information work has also raised a separate transparency problem: important historical master plans, condition reports, inflow-and-infiltration documents and source-control records referenced by the City have not always been readily available to the public.
What this means to a Victoria taxpayer
You already own this infrastructure.
Whether the bill appears as taxes, utility charges, borrowing or a future emergency repair does not change who ultimately pays it.
Putting another layer of asphalt over an old sewer connection does not make the sewer younger.
If a street is being rebuilt, the sewer, stormwater system and private connections beneath that street should be assessed and coordinated before the pavement goes down.
Otherwise taxpayers risk paying to open the same street twice.
2. Saanich
Saanich is different from Victoria geographically, but financially the underground problem is even larger.
Saanich's 2025 State of Assets Report places the replacement value of its drainage infrastructure at approximately:
$1.375 billion
and its wastewater infrastructure at approximately:
$1.136 billion
Combined:
$2.511 billion
The same report identifies significant funding gaps.
For drainage, Saanich reported target annual funding of approximately $19.9 million, compared with current annual funding of about $8.7 million, with a reported 2025 backlog of approximately $104 million.
For wastewater, the report lists a replacement value of $1.136 billion, target funding of approximately $16.3 million annually and current funding of about $8.1 million. [2]
That is important because Saanich is not guessing about whether it has an infrastructure problem.
It is publishing the numbers.
Saanich has approximately 29,475 sewer laterals in the working inventory used for this analysis.
Applying the same half-lateral planning scenario produces another:
$295 million to $590 million
That brings Saanich's working exposure to approximately:
$2.81 billion to $3.10 billion
Saanich deserves credit for publishing comparatively detailed asset-management information.
But transparency does not reduce the size of the bill.
Its own numbers show that renewal needs substantially exceed present funding in important asset classes.
Saanich also contains major watersheds draining to the Gorge Waterway, Portage Inlet, Cadboro Bay, Juan de Fuca Strait and Saanich Inlet.
That makes underground infrastructure renewal a water-quality issue as well as an accounting issue.
What this means to a Saanich taxpayer
Saanich's $2.5-billion public drainage-and-wastewater replacement value is not somebody else's problem.
The municipality can spread renewal over decades, rehabilitate pipes where appropriate, coordinate projects and pursue grants.
But the assets still have to be maintained and eventually renewed.
Delaying necessary work does not make the liability disappear.
It transfers a larger share of it to the next generation.
3. Esquimalt
Esquimalt now provides one of the clearest examples of how quickly the numbers become serious once a municipality properly examines its underground system.
The Township's 2026 stormwater asset-management work identified approximately:
67.2 kilometres of storm sewer mains
with an estimated replacement value of about:
$263.3 million
More importantly, approximately 34 kilometres — about half of the storm-main network — was identified for renewal over the next 20 years.
The plan identified roughly $10.3 million per year of storm-main needs during the first ten years, followed by about $2.7 million annually during years 11 through 20.
It estimated average long-term lifecycle investment at approximately $3.6 million per year.
Under lower funding trajectories examined in the plan, tens of millions of dollars of work would remain deferred.
The plan also identifies approximately $4 million for stormwater-quality improvements in priority catchments, separate from the principal pipe-renewal program.
On the sanitary side, Esquimalt's asset-management work puts the system-wide replacement value at approximately:
$223 million
with approximately:
$110 million
in risk-based priority renewals identified over roughly 20 years.
Together, the public sanitary and stormwater replacement exposure is approximately:
$486 million
before adding private connections and other related infrastructure.
Esquimalt has approximately 3,404 laterals in the working inventory.
A half-lateral planning scenario adds approximately:
$34 million to $68 million
The significance of the new Esquimalt work is that an issue that could once be discussed vaguely as "aging infrastructure" now has kilometres, dollars and timelines attached to it.
Esquimalt is beginning to put serious numbers around the problem and has active sanitary and stormwater asset-management programs. The Township has also begun budgeting specifically for storm sewer infrastructure renewal. [3][4]
That is progress.
But documenting a backlog is the beginning of fixing it, not the end.
What this means to an Esquimalt taxpayer
Roughly half of the storm-main network being identified for renewal over twenty years is not routine housekeeping.
It demonstrates how much work has accumulated underground.
The sensible response now is to fund the program, coordinate storm and sanitary work with road projects, correct cross-connections and address polluted runoff at the same time.
Fix the street once.
Fix what is underneath it while it is open.
4. Oak Bay
Oak Bay may provide the bluntest official description of the problem.
The District itself states that a significant portion of its water, sanitary sewer, storm and road assets are past their recommended useful life, while many other assets are well through their useful life and approaching replacement.
It also acknowledges that historic and current funding levels have not been sufficient to replace infrastructure at the recommended pace. [5]
The older published replacement values used in this analysis put Oak Bay's underground public systems at approximately:
Storm sewer: $171.2 million
Sanitary sewer: $137.4 million
Combined: $308.6 million
Oak Bay has approximately 3,813 laterals in the working inventory.
Under the half-lateral planning scenario, that adds approximately:
$38 million to $76 million
giving a working total of approximately:
$347 million to $385 million
A full-lateral scenario increases that to approximately:
$385 million to $461 million
Oak Bay has significant documented inflow-and-infiltration problems and has been undertaking sewer separation, lining, replacement and other renewal work.
That work matters.
Oak Bay is not doing nothing.
But neither should taxpayers be left with the impression that the problem is close to being solved.
Oak Bay's own infrastructure planning looks decades into the future because the accumulated renewal requirement is so large. Its Sustainable Infrastructure Replacement Plan was specifically developed to examine replacement spending over 50 to 100 years. [5]
What this means to an Oak Bay taxpayer
Oak Bay is repairing infrastructure.
The question is whether the rate of renewal is fast enough to catch the backlog.
If the answer involves another half-century of replacing infrastructure that is already old today, then the community still has a serious intergenerational financing problem.
Starting is not the same thing as finishing.
5. View Royal
View Royal requires a different treatment because its infrastructure is generally younger and the currently available replacement-value information is not directly comparable with the other four municipalities.
We should not pretend otherwise.
View Royal reports approximately 50 kilometres of sanitary sewer pipeline and 17 pump stations, together with approximately 30 kilometres of drainage pipeline, plus swales, ditches, rain gardens and wetlands. [6]
The Town also directly acknowledges inflow and infiltration as a serious issue and identifies cracked pipes and incorrectly connected private drainage as possible sources. [6]
Because a fully comparable consolidated replacement value has not yet been established for this analysis, VOLWS has used a conservative preliminary planning floor of:
$100 million or more
for the public sanitary and stormwater systems.
View Royal has approximately 2,119 laterals in the working inventory.
The half-lateral planning scenario adds approximately:
$21 million to $42 million
for an initial working exposure of approximately:
$121 million to $142 million or more
This figure should be refined as better asset information becomes available.
View Royal's younger system is not a reason to postpone renewal.
It is an opportunity to avoid repeating the mistakes of its older neighbours.
What this means to a View Royal taxpayer
The cheapest infrastructure problem is usually the one dealt with before it becomes an emergency.
View Royal has an opportunity to inspect, repair and fund renewal while much of its system is still younger.
Waiting until the infrastructure reaches the condition seen elsewhere in the Core Area would simply recreate the same backlog.
6. Put the Five Municipalities Together
Using the current working replacement values:
Victoria: about $1.40 billion
Saanich: about $2.511 billion
Esquimalt: about $486 million
Oak Bay: about $309 million
View Royal: preliminary floor of $100 million or more
The combined public sanitary-and-stormwater exposure is approximately:
$4.81 BILLION
Now add private sewer laterals.
The five municipalities together have approximately:
52,487 LISTED LATERALS
The CRD has estimated that approximately 50 percent of inflow and infiltration may enter the sewer system on private property. [7]
That is important evidence.
But it does not mean that half of every municipality's private laterals have been inspected and proven defective.
For that reason, this article uses half of the lateral inventory only as a planning scenario.
If half of the 52,487 laterals required major renewal at an assumed $20,000 to $40,000 each, the regional exposure becomes approximately:
$5.33 BILLION TO $5.86 BILLION
If all listed laterals eventually required major replacement:
$5.86 BILLION TO $6.91 BILLION
That is where the description of a roughly $7-billion underground problem comes from.
It is an upper-end long-term planning scenario.
It is not a $7-billion invoice arriving at municipal halls tomorrow morning.
But neither is it imaginary.
The pipes, laterals, pump stations and storm drains already exist.
So does the accumulated renewal obligation.
This Is Also a Water-Quality Bill
Every municipality can produce an asset-management spreadsheet.
The more important question is what happens when the infrastructure does not work properly.
Stormwater systems discharge directly into the environment.
The CRD's Core Area Stormwater Quality Program exists specifically to identify bacterial and chemical contamination in stormwater, creeks and marine receiving waters and to work with municipalities to locate and reduce pollution sources. [8][9]
The Harbour and Gorge are the receiving waters for heavily urbanized watersheds.
The CRD itself notes that decades of sewage and industrial pollution seriously degraded the Gorge before major cleanup efforts began. [10]
We should have learned something from that history.
We cannot spend hundreds of millions of dollars restoring shorelines, planting eelgrass, building parks and improving public access while continuing to allow contaminated runoff and defective infrastructure upstream to undermine the same waters.
Nor should anyone claim that replacing old pipes alone will clean up the Harbour.
It will not.
A proper program must address:
sanitary sewer defects;
inflow and infiltration;
private laterals;
cross-connections;
stormwater pipe failures;
industrial and commercial runoff;
road runoff and vehicle-related contaminants;
catch-basin maintenance;
historical contamination;
contaminated sediments; and
effective source control before pollution reaches the water.
Infrastructure renewal and pollution prevention have to become the same program.
Stop Repairing Half the System
One of the easiest political traps is to repair the municipal pipe beneath the street while ignoring the private lateral running from the building to that pipe.
Water does not care where the property line is.
Neither does infiltration.
Neither does sewage escaping from a failed connection.
If a municipality spends millions replacing a public sewer while deteriorated private connections remain attached to it, taxpayers may have purchased only half a repair.
That is why private-side inspection and financing must become part of the renewal strategy.
The answer does not have to be forcing every homeowner to suddenly write a $30,000 cheque.
Governments already know how to finance long-lived public improvements.
The same thinking can be used for private laterals through grants, rebates, long-term low-interest financing and property-based repayment programs.
What makes little sense is rebuilding the public side while pretending the private half of the system does not exist.
What Should Happen Now
The following are Veins of Life Watershed Society proposals.
1. Create one coordinated Core Area sanitary-sewer and stormwater renewal program.
Victoria, Saanich, Esquimalt, Oak Bay and View Royal share receiving waters and regional wastewater infrastructure.
Their underground renewal should be planned as a connected system rather than five isolated municipal problems.
2. Build one complete regional asset inventory
The public should be able to see:
pipe age;
material;
condition;
inspection history;
failure risk;
inflow-and-infiltration risk;
cross-connections;
private-lateral condition where known;
stormwater discharge locations; and
planned renewal dates.
3. Establish a funded 25-year completion program
Not another strategy promising that somebody will deal with the problem eventually.
A funded program.
With projects.
With dates.
With money attached.
4. Establish five-year milestones
Every municipality should publicly report what percentage of the high-risk system has actually been inspected, rehabilitated or replaced.
Not how many meetings were held.
Not how many plans were written.
How much of the problem was actually fixed.
5. Inspect high-risk private laterals
Priority should go to older neighbourhoods, high-I&I catchments, documented cross-connection areas and places where receiving-water contamination is already known.
6. Provide grants and long-term low-interest financing
Homeowners did not create the region's infrastructure planning failure.
A workable program should make repairs financially possible rather than simply issuing orders.
7. Coordinate everything street by street
When a road is opened, examine the water, sanitary, stormwater and private connections together.
Do the work once wherever practical.
Then pave it.
8. Put source control into the construction program
Replacing a storm pipe without reducing the pollutants flowing into it simply provides a newer pipe to carry pollution to the ocean.
Source control, catch-basin maintenance, treatment and contaminant tracing must be built into stormwater renewal.
9. Separate the accounting
Residents should be able to see what is being spent on:
sanitary sewer renewal;
inflow and infiltration;
stormwater renewal;
private laterals;
source control;
water-quality improvements; and
road restoration associated with underground work.
10. Publish an audited annual progress report
One regional report.
Same measurements.
Same definitions.
Every year.
11. Establish consequences when milestones are repeatedly missed
If municipalities cannot keep essential wastewater and stormwater infrastructure on an acceptable renewal path, the Province should require corrective planning and enforceable schedules.
The Choice Is Not Whether We Pay
Someone will pay for this infrastructure.
The only questions are when, how much and who gets handed the bill.
We can inspect it now.
We can coordinate the work.
We can fix high-risk pipes and connections first.
We can stop polluted runoff before it reaches the Harbour and Gorge.
We can provide reasonable financing to property owners.
We can coordinate underground work before roads are repaved.
And we can measure progress publicly.
Or we can keep postponing renewal until failures, emergency repairs, contaminated waterways and construction inflation make the same work more expensive.
For decades, Greater Victoria benefited from infrastructure installed by earlier generations.
We should not repay that inheritance by handing the next generation worn-out pipes and a multibillion-dollar repair bill.
The backlog is already here.
It is time to start treating it that way.
Notes on the Numbers
Replacement value is not the same as an immediate capital budget requirement. Some pipes can be rehabilitated rather than completely replaced, projects will occur over many years, and costs will change with engineering, inflation and construction conditions.
The private-lateral calculations are planning scenarios, not findings that 50 percent or 100 percent of laterals have failed.
The CRD's estimate that approximately half of I&I may originate on private property describes the share of I&I, not the percentage of laterals requiring complete replacement. [7]
View Royal's $100-million public-system figure is a preliminary VOLWS planning floor and should not be represented as an official Town replacement valuation.
These qualifications do not change the central finding: the public sanitary and stormwater systems alone have an estimated working replacement exposure of approximately $4.81 billion, before the full private-side problem is considered.
References
1. City of Victoria — 2026–2030 Financial Plan and municipal utility/asset-management material. The City's 2026 plan identifies approximately 237 km of sanitary mains, 260 km of storm drains and the principal utility infrastructure maintained by the City.
2. District of Saanich — State of Assets Report 2025 and Asset Management Program. Drainage replacement value: approximately $1.375 billion; wastewater: approximately $1.136 billion; the report also identifies substantial differences between target and present annual renewal funding.
3. Township of Esquimalt / Urban Systems — 2026 Storm Sewer Asset Management Plan. Working figures used here include approximately 67.2 km of storm mains, approximately $263.3 million replacement value and approximately 34 km identified for renewal over 20 years. The Township's procurement documents confirm the approximately 67.29-km network and the requirement for a detailed 20-year renewal and water-quality program.
4. Township of Esquimalt — Sanitary Sewer Asset Management Plan and 2026 infrastructure-renewal program. The Township describes its sanitary plan as a comprehensive 20-year guide and has established capital programming for sewer and storm renewal.
5. District of Oak Bay — Sustainable Infrastructure Replacement Plan and Asset Management Program. Oak Bay states that a significant portion of its infrastructure is already past recommended useful life and that historic/current funding has not been sufficient to renew assets at the recommended pace.
6. Town of View Royal — Sewer & Drainage information and Sanitary Sewer Master Plan resources. View Royal reports approximately 50 km of sanitary pipeline, 17 pump stations and approximately 30 km of drainage pipeline and identifies I&I as a significant issue.
7. Capital Regional District — Core Area Inflow & Infiltration Program / Management Plan reporting. CRD states that it is estimated approximately 50% of I&I enters the sewer system on private property and identifies private-property I&I programs as an important component of reduction efforts.
8. Capital Regional District — 2024 Core Area Stormwater Quality Program Report. CRD describes bacterial and chemical monitoring of stormwater discharges and states that municipal storm-drain systems are owned and operated by the municipalities.
9. Capital Regional District — 2025 Core Area Stormwater Quality Program Report. Listed in CRD's current stormwater and wastewater document library as the latest annual Core Area stormwater report.
10. Capital Regional District — Gorge Waterway background and watershed information. CRD records the historical degradation of the Gorge from sewage and industrial wastes and the subsequent improvements resulting from cleanup efforts.
11. Veins of Life Watershed Society — municipal FOI review and Core Area infrastructure analysis, 2025–2026. VOLWS analysis is used where identified for document-access findings, the View Royal preliminary planning floor and the regional/lateral scenario calculations. These are VOLWS analyses and should not be attributed to the municipalities or CRD.
John R Roe
- Office 250 383 2086
- Our New Blog VOLWS Enjoy
- The Dead Boats Disposal Society
- The Veins of Life Watershed Society
- "Over 30 years of cleanup and restoration have taught me one truth—if you don’t stop the pollution at its source, you’re just sweeping sand in a windstorm. Source control, source control, source control. Then, and only then, do you restore."
— JR Roe. Amen - oshaku shushaku—mistake upon mistake compounds to become the sum total of one's knowledge.
- “Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” — i.e., nature (healthy ecosystems) is real wealth, not a trade-off against wealth.
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This email, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure, or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message
Canada stays strong by standing united—defending democracy, rejecting division, and leading with truth, justice, and integrity. We fight tyranny with resilience, compassion, and an unwavering commitment to a better future.
“Before characterizing a citizen as ‘vexatious,’ one might consider whether repeatedly applying such labels becomes vexatious in itself —*vexator* rather than *vexatus*.”
No comments:
Post a Comment