Outside Water Use Bylaw Update
The City is updating our Outside Water Use bylaw.
In 2003, City Council approved an Outside Water Use Bylaw to help manage periods of low water supply and high water use. The bylaw was also a necessary step for the City to meet Provincial requirements for water management outlined in Ontario’s Low Water Response Plan. The current bylaw is now 10 years old, so it’s time to make sure it still works well and meets today’s needs. It was recommended that staff review and update the Outside Water Use Bylaw and Outside Water Use Program in 2025. The update will include recommendations from the Drought Response Operational Plan (DROP) report and follow best practices used by other municipalities.
Guelph is a community that depends on groundwater to meet its drinking water needs. Typically, water demands increase during the summer months as people use more water for outdoor activities like car washing, lawn and garden watering, and filling swimming pools. As a groundwater City, we need to make sure we use our water wisely, especially as we deal with climate change. An Outside Water Use Program helps us deal with things like hotter, drier summers, less rainfall, more people using water, and limits on how much the City can pump and treat water.
The City currently monitors water conditions and uses levels to determine water conditions and to tell the public about them.
- Blue - Level 0
- Yellow – Level 1
- Red – Level 2
The levels of outside water use restrictions are determined on a number of factors, like low rainfall creating dry conditions, local river flows, how much water the community is using and how much the City is producing or pumping through the system.
How can I participate right now?
Our formal engagement for this project has concluded.
We're preparing a bylaw update to bring in front of City Council in June of 2026. Visit phase four in the timeline below to learn about ways to delegate or share your thoughts with council. you can also reach out to our project team any time. check out "Who's listening" for contact information.
What's Changing in the proposed bylaw update
We heard feedback from the community that the previous restriction stages of blue, yellow and red were confusing, so we're updating the bylaw to make the system simpler and easier to understand, while still protecting our water supply.
Read through phase three in this project for a summary of the proposed bylaw changes.
Phases
Comment on proposed bylaw changes
Thank you for the excellent comments and questions for the bylaw changes. Your feedback has helped the team to finalize the bylaw update for council approval. We're presenting to Committee of the Whole on June 2. Check out the Council and Committee calendar for the agenda and full report released on May 21, 2026.
Community members are invited to register in advance to speak at council as a delegation or share their thoughts with council directly.
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In this phase of engagement we had proposed some changes to the Outside Water Use bylaw based on the update study and community engagement we have conducted to date.
Some changes will realign this bylaw with other city bylaws and policies or remove redundancies, other changes are purely housekeeping in nature, such as date updates for example.
We want your comments!
Please take some time to review the proposed changes that we think will impact how the community uses water and let us know if they will help us to achieve our goals of:
- Being easy to comply with
- Reducing water demand during peak times and days with extreme weather or draught conditions, and
Helping our current capacity to provide water serve Guelph as it continues to grow.
You can share comments or questions here. Your feedback will be sent directly to the project team to consider and respond to. Some comments or questions may be posted publicly to share more context with the community.
What’s changing?
Standard restriction level
We’re proposing to combine the previous blue and yellow restriction levels into one standard level that will be in effect between April 15 and October 31 each year. The water use restrictions in this level will not change.
Standard restrictions:
- Outdoor watering is allowed for up to four hours between 12 a.m. and 9 a.m., and 5 p.m. and 12 p.m. No outdoor watering is allowed between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
- Lawn watering is allowed every other day, based on your address. If your street address is an even number, you can water on even-numbered calendar days. Odd street numbers can water on odd calendar days.
- Watering gardens and trees, including ornamental and vegetable gardens, is allowed at any time.
Elevated restriction level
The previous red restriction level is being renamed to the elevated restriction level. This level will come into effect during times where there is a lack of rainfall, stream flow issues or water storage concerns.
Elevated restrictions:
- Watering ornamental gardens is allowed every other day, based on your address. If your street address is an even number, you can water on even-numbered calendar days. Odd street numbers can water on odd calendar days.
- Watering trees, shrubs and vegetable gardens is allowed at any time
Not allowed at any time:
- Lawn watering
- Using water for public education or demonstrations
- Using water to clean driveways
- Cleaning outdoor surfaces, including pressure washing
Permits
Permits for using water outside restricted times will still be available. The price will increase from $10 per permit to $15 per permit following approval. Proof of purchase may be required (e.g. grass seed, lawn treatment) and a reason for the permit may be required.
General housekeeping updates
Through the Bylaw, we will make changes to align with other pre-approved bylaw and policies at the City of Guelph and remove redundancies or outdated information.
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