Markham Water Restrictions 2026

Markham is under a mandatory odd/even outdoor watering schedule from June 1 to September 30. Odd-numbered addresses water on odd calendar dates, even-numbered addresses on even dates, and outdoor water use is permitted 6-9 a.m. or 6-9 p.m.

The most important thing to understand about this rule is what it is not. It is not a drought measure. Markham is not short of water, and a wet June will not lift it. It is a permanent demand-management by-law that runs on a calendar, and it exists to flatten the summer peak on a supply system that has to be sized for the worst hour of the worst day.

Markham is the largest municipality in York Region and one of the most diverse cities in Canada, and its schedule starts two weeks later than most of its neighbours — June 1 rather than May 15.

Your assigned watering schedule

Your address	Watering dates	Permitted hours
Odd-numbered	Odd calendar dates (1st, 3rd, 5th…)	6-9 a.m. or 6-9 p.m.
Even-numbered	Even calendar dates (2nd, 4th, 6th…)	6-9 a.m. or 6-9 p.m.

Read the hours carefully, because the wording is 6-9 a.m. or 6-9 p.m. — one window per permitted day, not both. That is a genuine difference from Aurora and Newmarket up the road, which allow watering in both a morning and an evening block.

The odd/even system has a quirk worth knowing: months with 31 days give odd-numbered addresses two consecutive permitted days at the turn of the month, because the 31st and the 1st are both odd. It is entirely legal, and it is reported as a violation by confused neighbours every summer.

Fines and enforcement

Markham enforces through Water Use By-law 2019-53. Officers issue notices to residents watering off-schedule, and a person convicted of an offence under the by-law may be fined up to $5,000.

That $5,000 is the statutory maximum on conviction, not the amount on a routine ticket — the set fine for a first off-schedule watering is lower, and Markham does not publish a standing figure we can verify. If you want the current number before risking it, ask the City directly rather than relying on the amounts that circulate on landscaping blogs. What we can tell you reliably is that the by-law is real, it is enforced, and the ceiling is high.

Enforcement in practice is complaint-driven. An in-ground irrigation system running on a schedule set three summers ago is the single most common source of violations, and it is also the easiest thing in this article to fix.

Where Markham’s water comes from

Markham owns no lake intake and no treatment plant. Its water is Lake Ontario water, treated at plants on the lakeshore and wholesaled inland by York Region, which buys from the City of Toronto and from Peel Region and pushes it north through a network of pumping stations and reservoirs.

That inland position is the whole reason the by-law exists. Toronto sits on the lake and takes water by gravity and short pipe runs; Markham sits roughly 25 kilometres inland and uphill, and every litre has to be lifted through several pressure zones to get there. The constraint is not how much water is in Lake Ontario — it is effectively unlimited — but how much can be pumped, stored and delivered during the few hours on a hot July evening when tens of thousands of sprinklers come on at once.

Spreading that demand across odd and even days halves the peak. That is the entire logic, and it is why the rule is permanent: the pumping constraint does not go away in a rainy year.

Permanent by-law or drought response?

Canadians encounter two completely different kinds of watering rule, and conflating them causes most of the confusion in this subject.

A permanent or seasonal by-law — Markham’s June-to-September odd/even schedule, Newmarket’s year-round version, Waterloo Region’s once-a-week summer rule — runs on a fixed calendar. Rainfall is irrelevant. It is demand management, sized to protect treatment and pumping capacity at peak.

A drought response works the other way. In Ontario that is the Low Water Response programme: 36 conservation authorities monitor streamflow and precipitation and declare Level 1 (a voluntary 10% reduction), Level 2 (a mandatory 20% reduction) or Level 3 (mandatory restrictions on all non-essential use). Those levels are declared on conditions, and municipalities enforce them through their own by-laws.

Markham currently has the first and not the second. If a conservation authority declared a Level 2 or 3 in this watershed, restrictions would stack on top of the odd/even schedule rather than replace it.

Condominium rules during water restrictions

Ontario condominium owners have less protection here than their counterparts in British Columbia, and it would be misleading to suggest otherwise.

In B.C., section 121 of the Strata Property Act provides that a strata bylaw is not enforceable to the extent it contravenes another enactment or law. Ontario has no equivalent. Condominium corporations operate under the Condominium Act, 1998, and while the general principle holds — a corporate rule cannot require an owner to commit a by-law offence — there is no watering-specific body of decisions to point to, and the Condominium Authority Tribunal’s jurisdiction is limited.

The practical approach in Markham’s many townhouse and common-element condominium developments is therefore procedural rather than adversarial. If your corporation issues a landscaping notice that would require watering off-schedule, reply in writing, cite By-law 2019-53 and your address parity, and ask the board to confirm which permitted date and window it expects the work to be done in. Most notices are withdrawn at that point, because the board has not thought about it.

Where the corporation owns the irrigation on common elements, the corporation is the party at risk, and every unit owner pays for a ticket through common expenses.

General information only, not legal advice. Strata and condo disputes are handled by the Condominium Authority Tribunal.

What's exempt from Markham's restrictions

Markham’s standout provision is its two-month grace period for newly laid sod and new seed — the most generous allowance of any municipality in York Region, where one month is the norm. New turf genuinely cannot survive an odd/even schedule during establishment: sod needs frequent light watering for the first two to three weeks while roots knit into the soil beneath, and seed needs the surface kept damp through germination.

Hand watering with a can or a hose fitted with a shut-off nozzle is the flexible option for anything you actually need to keep alive, and drip irrigation and soaker hoses put water at the root zone with almost no evaporative loss.

Vegetable gardens are the category most worth protecting. If you grow food, water it by hand and stop worrying about the calendar.

Watering a Markham garden well

An alternate-day schedule with a single three-hour window is more than enough water for a healthy lawn, provided you stop thinking in terms of frequency and start thinking in terms of depth.

A lawn needs roughly 25 mm of water a week, including whatever the sky provides. Markham receives around 800 mm of precipitation a year, reasonably distributed, so in a normal July a meaningful share of that requirement arrives without help. A rain gauge costs a few dollars and will save you more than that in a single season.

To find out what your sprinkler actually delivers, set three or four straight-sided tins on the grass and run it for twenty minutes, then measure the depth collected. Most people discover their system reaches 25 mm in well under an hour — comfortably inside a three-hour window, on alternate days. The by-law is rarely the binding constraint; habit is.

Water deeply and infrequently rather than lightly and often. A single soak that wets the soil profile encourages roots to grow downward into stable moisture; frequent shallow watering trains them to stay near the surface where they are the first thing to suffer in a heat wave. The odd/even rule pushes you toward the better pattern whether you intended it or not.

Mow high — 7 to 8 cm rather than a close cut. Taller grass shades its own root zone, holds soil moisture and outcompetes weeds; scalped grass bakes and then needs the water it just lost. Leave the clippings on the lawn rather than bagging them: they return both moisture and nitrogen.

And let it go dormant in August. Kentucky bluegrass, which dominates lawns across Markham, is specifically adapted to go brown under heat stress and green up again when cooler weather and autumn rain return. Dormancy is a survival strategy, not death — and foot traffic on dormant grass does far more lasting harm than the dry spell itself.

Frequently asked questions

What days can I water my lawn in Markham?

Odd-numbered addresses water on odd calendar dates, even-numbered addresses on even dates, between June 1 and September 30. Permitted hours are 6-9 a.m. or 6-9 p.m.

Can I water in both the morning and the evening?

No. Markham’s by-law allows 6-9 a.m. or 6-9 p.m. — one window per permitted day. Neighbouring Aurora and Newmarket allow both blocks; Markham does not.

What is the fine for watering on the wrong day?

Markham enforces under Water Use By-law 2019-53, and a person convicted may be fined up to $5,000. That is the maximum on conviction rather than a routine ticket amount; the City does not publish a standing set fine, so contact Markham directly for the current figure.

Do the restrictions apply if it has been raining?

Yes. This is a demand-management by-law on a fixed calendar, not a drought measure. It runs June 1 to September 30 regardless of rainfall.

I just laid new sod — what can I do?

Markham allows a two-month grace period for newly laid sod and new seed, the most generous in York Region. Confirm the current process with the City before you install.

Can my condo corporation make me water off-schedule?

A corporate rule cannot require you to commit a by-law offence. But Ontario has no equivalent to section 121 of British Columbia’s Strata Property Act, which makes a bylaw unenforceable to the extent it contravenes another law, so put any disagreement in writing and ask the board to identify the permitted date and window. This is general information, not legal advice; strata and condo disputes are handled by the Condominium Authority Tribunal.

Why does Markham have restrictions when Toronto doesn’t?

Toronto sits on Lake Ontario and takes water directly. Markham is about 25 kilometres inland and uphill, and receives wholesaled water pumped north through several pressure zones. The constraint is delivery capacity at peak demand, not the amount of water in the lake.

Can I still wash my car or fill a pool?

Those uses fall under the same outdoor water use by-law and the same odd/even dates and hours. Check with the City for the current treatment of pool filling, which some municipalities handle separately.