Commissioner, Water and Wastewater Services

The Role

Combines the technical depth of a senior engineering authority with the strategic scope of an executive leader to shape both water and wastewater systems and the organizational practices that support one of Canada’s fastest-growing regions during a period of sustained growth, infrastructure investment, and increasing system complexity.

Plays a critical role in safeguarding long-term water security, building trust with partners and the public, and providing Council with clear, accountable guidance on how infrastructure capacity, risk, and investment choices enable—or constrain—regional growth.

Operates across three interconnected imperatives within a broader watershed governance framework, in coordination with the local Conservation Authority and provincial regulators:

• Ensuring the system can safely and reliably meet current and future demand
• Protecting long-term water sources, recharge areas, and watershed health
• Aligning infrastructure, land-use, and regulatory requirements in a transparent and disciplined manner.
  
  

The Region operates a predominantly groundwater-dependent municipal water supply system, supported by surface water from the Grand River, and relying on a distributed network of municipal wells, treatment facilities, reservoirs, and sensitive aquifer systems. Within this context, water is not simply a utility service, it is a foundational enabler of community growth, public health, environmental stewardship, and economic vitality.

Duties/Responsibilities

• Provides executive leadership for long-range water supply and wastewater planning, ensuring infrastructure capacity, system resilience, and sustainable yield principles are clearly understood and aligned with approved growth projections.
• Integrates competing operational, capital, asset, financial, and growth-related risks into a whole-system view, and provides clear direction on priorities, sequencing, and trade-offs.
• Provides timely, evidence-based advice on infrastructure readiness, servicing constraints, and growth staging to support informed decision-making and avoid unanticipated capacity or service disruptions.
• Serves as the Region’s senior engineering authority for water and wastewater systems, with responsibility for ensuring decisions are grounded in sound engineering judgment, regulatory compliance, and lifecycle asset management principles, including adherence to the Ontario Safe Drinking Water Act.
• Establishes, maintains, and enforces appropriate engineering oversight, decision-making, and delegation frameworks to ensure that technical authority is clearly assigned, exercised, and respected across the organization.
• Provides leadership and oversight for a complex system of water and wastewater treatment facilities, distribution and collection networks, pumping stations, and supporting infrastructure.
• Partners with the CAO, Corporate Leadership Team, and Senior Leadership Team to support the continued evolution of the utility’s organizational structure and operating model.
• Reduces fragmentation between planning, capital delivery, operations, and asset management functions by strengthening coordination, clarifying roles and responsibilities, and improving accountability across the full infrastructure lifecycle.
  Creates an environment where cross-functional collaboration, disciplined prioritization, and transparent escalation of risks and issues are expected and supported.
• Provides clear, consistent, and decision-ready recommendations to Regional Council on infrastructure capacity, system risks, investment priorities, and growth enablement.
• Maintains effective working relationships with area municipalities, developers, regulators, conservation authorities, and other partners, fostering trust through technical credibility, transparency, and timely communication.
• Ensure that emerging risks, system constraints, and material changes in assumptions are communicated early and clearly to avoid unintended consequences or surprises.

Additional Duties/Responsibilities

• Leads a multi-year capital investment program focused on system expansion, renewal, resilience, and regulatory compliance.
• Prioritizes capital projects and sequencing based on system risk, service reliability, growth enablement, asset condition, and affordability.
• Ensures the safe, reliable, and continuous delivery of water and wastewater services.
• Oversees operational performance, maintenance strategies, and system reliability across all facilities and networks.
• Leads enterprise-wide asset management strategies that optimize lifecycle performance and risk management.
• Uses data-driven approaches to inform long-term capital planning and investment decisions.
• Manages operating and capital budgets for the Water and Wastewater Services portfolio.
• Balances infrastructure investment, service reliability, growth needs, and long-term affordability in support of financial sustainability.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Must be licensed and in good standing as a Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario (for those trained outside Canada equivalency will be determined by the PEO). Participates in activities to maintain professional license.
• 15+ years of progressive leadership experience in water, wastewater, or complex infrastructure systems.
• Demonstrated experience delivering and prioritizing large-scale capital programs ($100M+ portfolios).
• Proven leadership of multidisciplinary, unionized, and operational environments.
• Strong understanding of water regulatory frameworks, environmental compliance, and public-sector utility governance.
• High capability in stakeholder engagement, including experience supporting elected officials and external partners.
• Strategic systems thinking and strong infrastructure planning capability.
• Sound operational and financial judgement.
• Ability to lead complex technical organizations through change and integration.
• High political acuity and confidence navigating competing interests.
• Ability to translate technical complexity into clear, decision-ready advice.
• Commitment to safety, service reliability, transparency, and public accountability.

Additional Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Demonstrated leadership courage to provide clear advice on infrastructure limits, servicing constraints, and growth staging, including recommendations that may require deferring, re-sequencing, or prioritizing competing demands to protect system integrity and public interest.
• Demonstrated commitment and understanding of reconciliation, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Experience, knowledge, and skill using equitable approaches to developing operational plans, service development, and delivery. Ability to apply an anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and decolonization lens to identify best practice in municipal service and community engagement.
• Ability to travel within and occasionally outside Waterloo Region.