Rebates and Programs by Province for Businesses (and some households)
Commercial, industrial businesses, and residences consume large amounts of water daily, and often work to save on water costs in multiple ways, such as investing in water valves, smart meters, regular maintenance, water audits, or other effective initiatives that focus on cutting business water costs.
But there is more. Some Canadian provinces offer water audits, utility rate discounts, equipment upgrade rebates, and technical support to help everyone become more water efficient. For this article, we’ve gone through the main provinces and their water incentives or rebates from houses to businesses.
Alberta
The Water Innovation Program
The Alberta Innovates initiative aims to improve efficiency, conserve supply, and protect the ecosystem, making it ideal for companies that are developing or adopting new water-saving technologies. According to them, Alberta faces the daunting challenge of managing finite water resources in a sustainable way with a population predicted to almost double in the next 35 years, and protecting the environment is the main goal.
The program description says the initiative uses a continuous intake process, as described in the Agriculture and Environment Application Guide. The application guide can be accessed from the online application portal under funding opportunities. In addition, periodic calls for proposals (with specific priorities and criteria) will be issued to award grant funding, along with a dedicated program description and application process guide.
Updated in July 2025, the website HelloDarwin informed that the program supports projects that enhance water security and promote sustainability through innovative approaches. Regarding the eligibility, the criteria would be:
- Developing strategies for sustainable management of water supplies and watershed management.
- Creating and implementing tools and strategies to maintain healthy aquatic ecosystems impacted by population growth and climate change.
- Innovating technologies to enhance water conservation, efficiency, and productivity to support economic and community growth while preserving environmental flows.
- Developing solutions to address the input and impact of contaminants on surface and groundwater quality, focusing on rural and remote communities.
Edmonton
The RainWise Rebate Program
The City of Edmonton has the RainWise Rebate Program is a three-year pilot program that makes it easier and more affordable for Edmonton residents to protect their properties from flooding and reduce flood risk in the community through effective stormwater management.
If you are a homeowner or renter, you are eligible for rebates from EPCOR on projects that help manage stormwater on your property. Rebates are available for projects that help to reduce the quantity of stormwater entering the collection system, improve the quality of stormwater released into the collection system, and prevent overland runoff and sewage from entering homes and businesses.
To qualify for the RainWise Rebate Program, you must be located within Edmonton and fit into one of the following customer classifications:
- Single-family residential.
- Multi-family residential.
- Industrial, commercial, or institutional.
Eligibility and project requirements vary by project, and it is advised to talk to EPCOR about any details. Stormwater management installations that are required as part of the development of a property or to remain in compliance with a property’s stormwater management requirements do not qualify for the rebate program.
Ontario
Toronto
The Capacity Buyback Program
The initiative encourages and rewards industrial, commercial, and institutional organizations that reduce water use. According to the municipal website, the program allows the City to buy back water capacity that has been freed up by participants who have reduced water use in their operations.
To check the eligibility, first is needed to send an email to savewater@toronto.ca or call: 416-392-7000. After that, the City will contact the company to discuss the eligibility. If the criteria are met, the City will arrange to have a professional engineer complete a thorough walkthrough and review of your organization’s water use.
To better explain, the program website page shows an example. In 2025, an organization that reduces water use by 10,000 litres (10 m3) a day could receive:
- A free water audit.
- $3,000 one-time program incentive (10,000 L x $0.30).
- $17,108.28 in annual water bill savings (10 m3 x 365 x $4.6872/m3, current water rate).
The Industrial Water Rate Program
The program offers a discounted water rate to manufacturers in Toronto to help support economic growth and encourage water conservation (also called the Block 2 water rate). Open to manufacturers that:
- Use more than 5,000 cubic metres annually (m3/yr).
- Falls within the industrial property tax class.
- Are in full compliance with the City’s Sewers By-law.
- Submit a comprehensive water conservation plan to the satisfaction of the General Manager, Toronto Water.
As the same with the anterior program we wrote about, to check the eligibility, first is needed to send an email to savewater@toronto.ca or call: 416-392-7000.
Waterloo
The W.E.T Program
The City of Waterloo has a few programs available for water efficiency for commercial and industrial businesses, most fall under the W.E.T Program.
You can request a free water use review, in which their staff will conduct an on-site review of water uses and they can help create a plan that identifies actions that can be taken to reduce water costs across your business. The review also provides businesses with the opportunity to learn about more water projects available in your area, discuss water requirements and to learn about available funding.
The sub-metering program lets you collect data on your water use that can help on finding and fixing any costly leaks, identifying and targeting water wasting areas, and designing a plan using real data that saves water and money.
An example of utilizing the WET program, is the Marsland Center, a commercial facility, replaced their water-intensive cooling towers with air-cooled liquid chillers and installed a closed loop boiling system. Extensive bathroom improvements, featuring water efficient fixtures including faucets and toilets were also completed to take advantage of the latest water saving technologies.
Businesses can request funding to help pay for water audits, consulting fees, and qualifying water-saving projects. You can apply for the WET Program online, or call the Region of Waterloo information about the WET Program at 519-575-4400
City of Guelph
The Water Smart Business Program
The City of Guelph has rebates for local businesses using high volumes of water that want to save money on their water bills. The City will compensate the cost for installing permanent, water conservation upgrades, up to $100,000. The program includes free water reviews and rebates of up to $10,000 for the cost of a third party audit.
Since 2019, the Water Smart Business Program has provided over $150,000 in funding to Guelph businesses investing in water-savings
British Columbia
The CleanBC Commercial Express Program
The initiative helps building owners cut greenhouse gas emissions by supporting small, energy-efficient upgrades through up to a maximum of $100,000 per project for improvements such as heating, cooling, and water heating systems. To be eligible, is required:
- Must be a commercial or multi-unit residential building.
- Must be located north of and including the District of 100 Mile House (latitude 51.628°N).
- Must be a commercial customer on SGS, MGS, or LGS rates.
- Reside within BC Hydro’s service area.
- Must reduce GHG emissions and use technologies not covered by other programs.
- Must be hardwired or permanent and accessible for inspection.
To apply is needed to read about the initiative (participant’s guide), contact the CleanBC Small Buildings Energy Coach, BC Hydro Business Account Representative, or the Key Account Manager for additional questions.
The Commercial and industrial heating system optimization rebates
According to FortisBC, rebates can help lower the cost of optimizing the performance of the existing gas heating equipment, with rebates up to 75%. These improvements can help the business decrease energy use and operational costs.
To be eligible is needed:
- Must be a FortisBC gas customer under any rate class except Rate 1.
- Must be a property owner or long-term leaseholder of an existing building or a builder/developer, or a property owner of a new construction project.
- Your hot water or steam boilers must be used to meet your site or facility’s loads, e.g. process load, sanitization, or space heating. Boilers installed to meet other operational needs (backup, standby, or secondary boilers) are not eligible.
- The hot water or steam boilers must use gas only.
- Retrofit-only combination offer not available for new boiler systems or new construction.
- Purchase date of products or services (as shown on the paid invoice) must be after December 19, 2024.
- Is needed to submit an application and supporting documentation no later than 365 days after the purchase date of the product(s) or service(s) (as shown on the paid invoice).
To apply is needed to contact a gas or mechanical contractor licensed, complete the application, and once approved, receive the rebate within six to eight weeks.
Greater Victoria Area
The Water Conservation for Businesses
Industrial, commercial, and institutional (ICI) businesses in the Capital Regional District (CRD) use over 11 billion litres of water per year, according to the CRD website. A quarter (26%) of all water use in the Greater Victoria Area.
Therefore, using water efficiently means lower water bills and, consequently, less environmental impact. The goals followed by the CRD water efficiency programs are helping eligible businesses and institutions use less water, save money, and protect the environment by providing rebates, free audits, technical services, and equipment. The main local programs for businesses are:
The Once-Through Cooling System Program
Through the program, eligible companies can get a rebate of $600 to replace a mid-sized OTC cooling condenser unit and $300 for a mid-sized ice maker, and up to a maximum of $2,500 per account to replace OTC equipment.
The Hand Wash Faucet Aerator Program
According to the program details, a new aerator uses less than two litres of water per minute (compared to 11 litres per minute on older faucets); therefore, the goal is to reduce the amount of excess water used, while saving money and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.
The eligible are any business or institution within the CRD Water District, and aim to change out aerators to maximize water efficiency on all hand-wash sinks (including bathroom sinks). To sign up on the website: www.crd.bc.ca/ic or call by phone to 250.360.3103.
Quebec
The AquaEntrepreneur
The AquaEntrepreneur is the only program in Quebec dedicated exclusively to the commercialization of water technologies. The initiative aims to help companies analyze and find their needs through personalized coaching. According to the institutional website, the program creates direct channels between start-ups, SMEs, and municipal and industrial partners wishing to reduce their water-related impact on the climate.
To be eligible, companies must have innovative solutions that address economic security issues related to water within municipal, industrial, or ag-tech sectors. The company must also fit these criteria:
- Be incorporated in Quebec.
- Be innovation ready for real-world deployment (TRL 7+).
- Have a strong economic, environmental, and/or social impact.
- Have strong growth and deployment potential.
- Have revenues less than CAD$5 million.
From its creation in 2022 to these days, AquaEntrepreneur has supported for 46 Quebec companies. To be a candidate, the company must fill in the application form to express your interest.
Manitoba
The Commercial Energy Audit Program
As we said in this article, an energy audit can bring strategies and internal analysis to improve energy saving in general, being commonly the first step in identifying key opportunities for building owners. The program offers financial incentives and technical support for building owners who complete ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) level 2 or 3 audits for eligible commercial buildings.
To be eligible is required:
- The building is used in a commercial capacity.
- The energy auditor is a pre-qualified consultant.
- The building owner is a current Manitoba Hydro customer paying a commercial service rate.
- The building is being heated primarily by electricity or natural gas supplied by Manitoba Hydro.
- The application must be approved prior to on-site assessment work.
To participate is needed submit the application, get the approval, select the consultant, complete the audit, and receive the report.
Hamilton
The Wastewater Abatement Program
The city of Hamilton has the Wastewater Abatement Program that allows eligible commercial and industrial ratepayers to apply for an assessment of the flow differential between water use and sewage discharged to the city’s sanitary sewer and combined sewer systems.
Eligible commercial and industrial consumers include those that divert a minimum of 25% of their purchased potable water from the sewer works. Water diverted from the sewer works for uses such as ground irrigation and recreation, or water hauled off-premises, is not eligible for abatement. Businesses are also not eligible for this program if the premises are non-compliant with any of the provisions of the Sewer Use Bylaw, or if the business isn’t currently in good financial standing with the city.
There is a complete file on the website. You need to download it, fill it out, and there is also the address to mail the application form in as well. After that, they will verify the information you sent, including the application and accompanying documents. They may require additional information during the review process including but not limited to engineering reports, a water balance study or calibration records.
Saskatchewan
The Waterflood Development Program
The local initiative offers repayable royalty/freehold production tax deferral for eligible wells that have been converted to injection wells or newly drilled injection wells for the purpose of waterflooding an oil reservoir. Still, according to the governmental page, to qualify for the WDP program is needed:
- Does not have outstanding debts that are past due to the Ministry of Energy and Resources.
- Has a Licensee Liability Rating (LLR) of 2.0 or greater as established by the Ministry of Energy and Resources.
- The applicant’s cumulative value of outstanding royalty deferrals does not exceed 30% of the applicant’s average monthly value of oil production.
- Provide any additional information, as requested by the Minister of Energy and Resources.
The Commercial Boiler Rebate
In Saskatchewan, most of the rebates and programs are through SaskEnergy, regardless of the municipality in the province.
The Commercial Boiler Rebate encourages the use of a high-efficiency natural gas condensing boiler to maximise energy cost savings while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Details about the program are:
- Equipment must be purchased and installed through a participating SaskEnergy Network member.
- Individual boiler input rating must be greater than 400 MBH or the total installed boiler plant (made of one or more boilers) input rating is greater than 700 MBH.
- Only eligible equipment qualifies for this, such as a minimum 90% thermal efficiency for replacements and a minimum 95% thermal efficiency for new installations.
- Must be a SaskEnergy Commercial Customer.
- The property is located in Saskatchewan.
To sign up and see if you’re eligible for the program, is need:
- Contact a participating SaskEnergy network member, and they will determine the size of the boiler for your building. The rebate amount is calculated on the size of the total boiler plant, ranging from $10/MBH for the first 600 MBH to $3/MBH above 600 MBH.
- Your network member will complete and submit an application for pre-approval on your behalf. If your application is preapproved, you and your network member will receive notice of approval and the estimated rebate amount.
- Once approval is granted, you have one year from then to complete the installation. Once that’s complete, your network member will submit all final documentation to SaskEnergy for processing.
- After that is all in place and verified, a rebate cheque will be mailed within 6-8 weeks.
Reviewing industrial water costs and treatment options
Looking to reduce utility costs for your business? EnergyRates.ca can help you review and reduce your utility costs beyond water usage. Our experienced team of energy consultants can also support you in comparing energy plans for your commercial, large commercial or industrial operations.
Contact us or call us at 1-855-635-9608 for a custom quote based on your energy needs.
