MUNICIPAL

The systems that run water were left out of the first wave. That is the window.

A cryptographic inventory of the treatment plant, the pumping stations, the distribution network and the metering that bills for it, with a roadmap sized for a municipal budget. No downtime. No rip and replace.

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Overview

Why now

Canada is writing its first National Water Security Strategy. The March 2026 announcement names aging critical water infrastructure as a challenge and says nothing about the control systems, telemetry and communications that run it. Water and wastewater is one of the ten critical infrastructure sectors in Public Safety Canada's national strategy, and it is the one that is almost entirely municipal. It was left out of the first wave of designated sectors under Bill C-8, which covers finance, telecommunications, energy and transport, so no regulator is asking a water utility today what protects its SCADA. The federal yardstick already exists in ITSM.40.001, and the G7 call to action says to start with an inventory. Utilities that hold one when the second wave comes will answer in an afternoon.

What is different about utilities and water

Treatment plants and pumping stations run on SCADA and telemetry that is often older than the staff operating it, connected over VPN tunnels, cellular and radio links whose encryption was chosen years ago and never revisited. Metering and billing systems connect the operational network to the corporate one and to the public. The consequence of a compromised control link is physical: a valve, a dose, a level. Budgets are municipal and capital planning runs in multi year cycles, so the case has to be made in the language of infrastructure renewal, not cyber spend.

What you get

The Fall 2026 Discovery Program, scoped to a utility:

  • A cryptographic bill of materials across the plant, the field sites and the metering and billing path, discovered passively so nothing on the control network is touched.
  • Findings ranked by physical consequence, with the tunnels and radio links that reach control systems first.
  • A phased roadmap that fits a capital plan, with a 90 day action plan and the evidence a council, a board or a future regulator will expect.
  • A written, fixed scope quote before any work starts. Flexible pricing to fit your budget, with monthly instalments available.

After the Discovery Program, if you want it: hardening the links that matter with quantum-safe keys delivered into the firewalls you already run, and ongoing governance as the estate changes.

How we work

Detect first. Every finding is labelled customer supplied, discovered or our judgment, and the report is written for the operator who has to act on it and the council or board that has to fund it. Fabric Networks designs, supplies, installs and operates in Canada, from Calgary, on a platform validated to FIPS 140-3 with a Fortinet Fabric-Ready key delivery integration. Fabric intends to make a submission when the Canada Water Agency opens engagement on the National Water Security Strategy; utilities that want to see it or sign it alongside us can say so on the scoping call.

Who this is for

Municipal water and wastewater utilities, regional water commissions, irrigation districts, electric and gas distribution utilities, and the operations and engineering managers accountable for their control networks.

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Guidance

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Key Challenges

  • Control systems older than the people running them
  • Tunnels and radio links with encryption nobody has reviewed
  • Metering and billing systems bridging the operational and corporate networks
  • No regulator asking yet, which means no budget line yet
  • Multi year capital cycles against a migration timeline that has already started

How Fabric Helps

  • Treatment plant and pumping station SCADA: inventory and hardening
  • Distribution network telemetry: cellular and radio links to field sites
  • Metering and billing path: the bridge between operational and corporate networks
  • Regional commissions and shared services: one assessment across several member utilities
  • Private fibre to plants and field sites: planned, costed, built and operated, quantum-safe from the first splice

Questions from this sector

We are not a designated operator. Why now?

Because the inventory takes weeks to build and minutes to produce once you have it, and the second wave of designations will ask for it first. The National Water Security Strategy is being written now and says nothing yet about the systems that run water; utilities that can show what protects theirs will be the ones shaping that conversation rather than reacting to it.

Can a regional commission run one assessment across several member utilities?

Yes. One scope, one report with a section per member, one price. Shared services groups and irrigation districts can do the same.

Is metering and billing in scope?

It can be. The metering and billing path is where the operational network meets the corporate network and the public, and it is often the least reviewed link in a utility. The scoping call decides whether it is in the first program or a later one.

Will this disrupt the plant?

No. Discovery is passive and nothing on the control network is changed. Any hardening you choose later runs under its own scope and change control, on the firewalls you already have.

How do we make the case to council?

The report is written for the operator who has to act on it and the council or board that has to fund it, in the language of infrastructure renewal rather than cyber spend. The roadmap is phased to fit a capital plan.

Start with a scoping call

Twenty minutes, no slides. We ask about your sites, what is driving the interest now and what a useful outcome looks like, and we tell you plainly whether a Discovery Program fits or whether a smaller first step is right.

Questions first? Read the answers buyers ask for most.