Item - 2021.IE25.13

The Infrastructure and Environment Committee recommends that:

1. City Council receive the report (October 12, 2021) from the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer and the General Manager, Toronto Water for information.

This report responds to City Council's request to the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer and the General Manager, Toronto Water, to report back on the viability of introducing a water and sewer line warranty program for the City of Toronto and its residents.

The purpose of such a program would be to provide residential property homeowners with the option of a homeowner service warranty protection repair plan to help address their repair costs to the private portion of water and sewer service line pipes located on their private property in the event of a failure or breakdown. While providers of such plans can, and often do, market them directly to residential property homeowners, in this instance, Service Line Warranties of Canada approached the City, through a presentation to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee, as referenced below, about the prospect of its partnering with the City, through a co-branding marketing agreement, to offer such a plan, giving rise to the request for this report back.

For the reasons set out in this report, City staff have determined that the proposed introduction of a service line warranty program is not viable and, therefore, recommend that this report be received for information purposes with no further action.

The timing of the submission of this report has been impacted by the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.