Règlement 86-2024 governs every drop of municipal water in Ormstown — watering days by civic number, pool filling on alternating dates, spring driveway washing for six weeks only, and a February 1, 2027 deadline to rip out water-cooled air conditioners. Fines start at $250 and each day counts separately.
Règlement 86-2024 sets the rules for using drinking water that comes from the municipality's distribution network, and it applies across the whole territory. That qualifier matters: a household on a private well is not drawing network water, so the watering schedule below is aimed at network users. The bylaw was adopted March 11, 2024 after a notice of motion on February 5, and the public notice of adoption was published March 13. It repeals and replaces every previous municipal bylaw on drinking-water use.
Ormstown did not draft it from scratch. The document is built on the Quebec government's model municipal bylaw on drinking-water use dated April 2019 — which is why residents in dozens of other municipalities will recognize the same address-digit schedule. Responsibility for applying it falls to the director of public works.
One carve-out is written into the scope itself: the bylaw does not limit the use of drinking water for horticultural production — growing vegetables, fruit, flowers or ornamental trees and shrubs for commercial or institutional purposes, from soil preparation through to marketing.
This is the part most residents will actually run into. Two different schedules apply, and they are not the same.
For lawns (article 7.3), watering is permitted only from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. with an automatic system, or only from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. with a mechanical system — a sprinkler you set down and turn on — on one assigned weekday:
| Address ends in | Permitted day |
|---|---|
| 0 or 1 | Monday |
| 2 or 3 | Tuesday |
| 4 or 5 | Wednesday |
| 6 or 7 | Thursday |
| 8 or 9 | Friday |
Read that list again: it runs Monday to Friday and stops. No civic address is assigned a weekend lawn-watering day, which means sprinkler watering of a lawn is not permitted on Saturday or Sunday for anyone.
For hedges, trees, shrubs and other plants (article 7.4), the same hours apply but the days are more generous — three per week:
| Address ends in | Permitted days |
|---|---|
| 0, 1, 4, 5 or 9 | Monday, Wednesday, Friday |
| 2, 3, 6, 7 or 8 | Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday |
None of this touches hand watering. Article 7.2 permits manual watering of a garden, vegetable plot, flower box, planter, flower bed, tree or shrub at any time — "manual" meaning a hose with a spring-loaded shut-off held in your hand throughout, or a watering can.
New plantings get a grace period. Under article 7.6, a new lawn, a new planting of trees or shrubs, or new landscaping may be watered every day during the permitted hours for 15 days from the start of seeding, planting or sod installation — and sod may be watered at any time on the day it is laid. The catch: owners must produce proof of purchase for the plants or seed on request from an enforcement officer. Nurseries and golf courses may also water daily during the permitted hours where necessary.
The bylaw distinguishes a bassin de baignade — a pool, wading pool, spa or hot tub — from a bassin d'eau, an outdoor ornamental basin such as a fountain or cascade. Filling an ornamental basin is authorized at any time, but if it has a mechanism that moves the water, it must have a working recirculation loop.
Filling a swimming pool is more restricted (article 7.9). Between May 1 and June 15, you may fill on an even-numbered date if your civic number is even, and an odd-numbered date if it's odd. After June 15, filling is allowed at any time. A demountable wading pool can be filled at any time, and so can any pool on the day it is installed or the day its liner is replaced — but keep the paperwork proving that date for at least 30 days.
Two uses are banned outright, in any season: topping up a pool whose treatment system is broken in order to maintain water quality, and topping up a pool that leaks in order to maintain its level.
Spring cleaning has a window. Using drinking water to wash a driveway, access lane or parking area is authorized only between May 1 and June 15; outside that window it is prohibited. The exceptions are narrow: applying paint or a protective coating to the surface, or removing a product or substance that can't be removed mechanically with a broom or blower. In every case, only a hand-controlled spray nozzle may be used.
Washing a terrace, an exterior wall, or a vehicle is allowed at any time — but a vehicle may only be washed with a wash bucket or a hand-controlled nozzle. Commercial and industrial sites may wash company vehicles or vehicles in their care at any time under the same bucket-or-nozzle rule, where washing is incidental to their business.
Automatic car washes are treated separately: they may use drinking water only if fitted with a system that recovers, recycles and recirculates wash water, kept in working order. Existing operators have until February 1, 2027 to comply.
Chapter 6 quietly bans several categories of equipment and gives owners until February 1, 2027 to get rid of what they already have:
Installing any of these is already prohibited outright. The 2027 date applies to units installed before the bylaw came into force. That deadline is now under six months away, and it lands on businesses and institutional buildings more than on households.
Under article 7.5, an automatic irrigation system must have: an automatic moisture sensor or rain shut-off that blocks a watering cycle when rainfall or soil moisture is sufficient; a backflow preventer meeting CSA standard B64.10 to protect the distribution network from contamination; an electric valve operated by an electric pilot device to control the watering cycle; and a manual shut-off handle or valve, accessible from outside, reserved for breakdowns, malfunctions and other urgent cases. Systems installed before the bylaw that don't meet these requirements may still be used, but must be upgraded, replaced or decommissioned.
Article 7.8 prohibits wasting drinking water or letting it run needlessly, and then lists eight specific situations that count as waste: using network pressure or flow as a source of energy or to run equipment; letting water run to prevent a pipe from freezing, unless the municipality specifically requires it and only for the period indicated; using drinking water to melt snow or ice; letting drinking water run off from any structure, appliance or system on the network; watering plants or maintaining grounds while it is raining; deliberately using watering equipment so that water runs into the street or onto neighbouring property; breaking or letting piping, fittings or fixtures deteriorate so that water is lost; and using drinking water abusively or excessively, even for an otherwise permitted purpose.
On the freezing exception: during intense cold or deep ground frost, the municipality may require the owner or occupant of a building whose service connection is on record as freeze-prone to run a trickle of water, for as long as necessary to prevent the line from freezing or breaking.
Other standing prohibitions: continuous purges are banned unless explicitly authorized case by case; using drinking water for agricultural irrigation is strictly prohibited unless a water meter is installed on the supply line and the municipality has authorized it; and fire hydrants may only be operated by authorized municipal employees, with a backflow preventer, following the municipality's procedure.
Article 7.17 lets the municipality prohibit outdoor water use entirely in two situations: an actual or anticipated drought likely to cause a shortage, or a major break in the aqueduct network or an essential component of it that threatens supply. During such a ban, plant watering, grounds maintenance, basin filling and all recreational or cleaning uses stop.
Four exceptions survive an emergency ban: watering vegetable gardens and edible plants, in ground or in pots, along with gardens and flowers, using a hand-controlled nozzle between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.; partially filling a pool to shape and hold the liner, limited to 30 cm of water measured at the shallow end, or adjusting the level to prevent equipment damage; watering a new lawn under the article 7.6 conditions; and any intervention to protect or restore public peace, health or safety. The ban lasts as long as the situation that justifies it.
Designated municipal employees may enter any public or private place at any reasonable time — inside or outside municipal limits — to carry out a repair or verify compliance, and they have access to interior shut-off valves inside buildings. They must carry municipal identification and show it on request. The municipality may also shut off the water to make repairs without liability for resulting damage, though it must give affected consumers reasonable notice except in an emergency.
The bylaw is explicit that the municipality guarantees neither uninterrupted service nor a given pressure or flow, and that no one may refuse to pay a bill because of insufficient water. Where pressure exceeds 550 kPa, the municipality may require the owner to install a pressure reducer with a gauge and keep it working. If reserves run low, the municipality can restrict consumption and supply buildings it considers priorities before private property owners on the network.
Article 8.4 sets the fines. For an individual: $250–$500 for a first offence, $500–$1,000 for a first repeat, and $1,000–$2,000 for any further repeat. For a corporation: $400–$800, then $800–$1,500, then $1,500–$3,000. Administration fees are added to the fine in every case, and a continuing offence is presumed to be as many offences as there are days it lasts.
The person responsible for applying the bylaw may issue statements of offence directly. A court may also order a violation corrected within a set deadline, failing which the municipality can do the work itself and bill the offender.
Find the last digit of your civic number and note your lawn day — and remember that hand watering with a hand-held nozzle is unrestricted, so a garden or a young tree can be watered any day. If you're planning to open a pool, note that filling before June 15 is tied to your odd/even civic number, and that after June 15 the restriction lifts. If you own a business with a water-cooled air conditioner, compressor, purge-tank urinal or a car wash without recycling, February 1, 2027 is the date to work back from.
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