Montreal Water Restrictions 2026

Montreal's annual outdoor watering by-law (règlement 13-023, adopted 2013) is a year-round permanent regulation rather than a drought response. The St. Lawrence River — the city's drinking water source via three treatment plants (Atwater, Charles-J.-Des Baillets, Pierrefonds) — provides essentially unlimited supply, but treatment-plant capacity and distribution-system pressure during peak summer demand are the constraint that drives the schedule. Even in wet years, the May 15 – September 1 schedule applies. Unlike British Columbia or Alberta cities responding to acute drought, Quebec's water management focuses on demand-side conservation as a permanent operating posture. Montreal's per-capita consumption (roughly 425 litres per day in 2023) remains higher than most large Canadian cities, and the city has set a 20% reduction target by 2030 under its Water Strategy 2017–2030. Montreal's 19 boroughs (arrondissements) each have authority to set additional local restrictions on top of the citywide §13-023 baseline. Some boroughs — including Verdun, Lachine, and Pierrefonds-Roxboro — operate stricter address-based schedules that override the citywide rules. Outremont and Westmount are independent municipalities not subject to Montreal's by-law and operate their own schedules. Verify your specific borough or municipality before setting a controller. For drought escalation: Montreal does not currently operate a multi-stage drought framework comparable to Metro Vancouver or Calgary. If St. Lawrence River conditions ever required emergency restrictions (which has not happened in modern record), the city would activate temporary mesures spéciales under the Charter of Ville de Montréal.