Newmarket Water Restrictions 2026

Newmarket runs a mandatory odd/even outdoor watering schedule all year round. Odd-numbered addresses water on odd calendar dates, even-numbered addresses on even dates, with permitted hours 6-10 a.m. and 6-10 p.m.

That word — year-round — is what sets Newmarket apart. Every other municipality in York Region runs a seasonal by-law that switches off around September 30 and returns in May or June. Newmarket’s applies in February as much as in July. It is the only one of the region’s municipalities that treats the odd/even rule as a permanent fact of life rather than a summer measure.

Watering schedule and allowed days

Your address	Watering dates	Permitted hours	Season
Odd-numbered	Odd calendar dates	6-10 a.m. and 6-10 p.m.	All year
Even-numbered	Even calendar dates	6-10 a.m. and 6-10 p.m.	All year

Eight permitted hours a day, on alternate days, is a generous allowance in practice — this is not a hardship rule. The significance of the year-round framing is not that it restricts you in January, when nobody is watering a lawn anyway. It is that the rule never has to be re-learned.

Seasonal by-laws create a predictable annual problem: every May, a whole municipality has to remember rules it stopped following eight months earlier, and the first weeks of the season generate most of the violations. A permanent rule removes that entirely. The schedule you followed last August is the schedule that applies next August, and the one that applies today.

Why a small town runs a permanent rule

Newmarket is the smallest of York Region’s five large municipalities by some distance — roughly 88,000 people against Markham’s 338,000 — and it is reasonable to ask why the smallest town has the most continuous rule.

The answer is that the constraint is not local. Newmarket sits at the northern end of York Region’s water network, and northern York is the far end of a very long pipe. Water enters the regional system at the Lake Ontario shoreline and is pumped progressively north and uphill through a chain of pressure zones. The further north a municipality sits, the more infrastructure stands between it and the lake, and the more sensitive it is to peak demand anywhere along that chain.

A permanent rule in the north end is a way of keeping demand predictable at the point where the system has the least headroom. It is also, plainly, simpler to administer and easier for residents to internalise than a calendar that changes twice a year.

Permanent by-law or drought response?

Newmarket is the clearest illustration in Canada of the distinction this whole subject turns on, so it is worth being precise.

Newmarket’s odd/even rule is a permanent demand-management by-law. It has no relationship to how much rain has fallen. It does not tighten in a dry August or relax in a wet one. Its job is to keep peak-hour demand within the delivery capacity of a long inland pipe network, and that capacity does not change with the weather.

Ontario’s drought response is an entirely separate mechanism. Thirty-six conservation authorities operate the provincial Low Water Response programme, monitoring streamflow and precipitation and declaring Level 1 (a voluntary 10% reduction), Level 2 (a mandatory 20% reduction) or Level 3 (mandatory restrictions on all non-essential use). Those declarations respond to conditions and are lifted when conditions recover; municipalities enforce them through local by-laws.

The two coexist. If a conservation authority declared a low water level covering Newmarket, it would apply in addition to the year-round odd/even schedule.

Where Newmarket’s water comes from

Newmarket is supplied with Lake Ontario water wholesaled by York Region, which purchases treated water from Toronto and from Peel and moves it north. The town holds no intake and runs no treatment plant.

Geographically, Newmarket sits on the Holland River, which drains north into Lake Simcoe rather than south into Lake Ontario. That is a genuine curiosity of the local landscape: the town drinks water that came from Lake Ontario, and its own watershed sends water the other way, toward Georgian Bay and eventually Hudson Bay. The Oak Ridges Moraine to the south is the drainage divide.

The practical consequence is that local rainfall and local streamflow have essentially nothing to do with Newmarket’s tap water. Watching the Holland River run low tells you about the health of the Lake Simcoe watershed; it tells you nothing about the town’s supply, which arrives by pipe from 60 kilometres away.

Condo owners in Ontario

Ontario gives condominium owners noticeably less protection on this than British Columbia does, and the difference should be stated honestly.

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. Corporations operate under the Condominium Act, 1998, and while a corporate rule cannot require an owner to commit a by-law offence, there is no watering-specific precedent and the Condominium Authority Tribunal’s jurisdiction is narrow.

The year-round rule does simplify matters for Newmarket boards, though. There is no seasonal switch-over to get wrong, so a common-element irrigation controller set correctly once stays correct. If your corporation manages the landscaping, ask in writing that the controller be set to the building’s address parity within the 6-10 a.m. or 6-10 p.m. blocks — and note that it never needs changing again.

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

Exemptions and permits

Hand watering with a watering can or a hose fitted with a shut-off nozzle is the flexible route for containers, vegetable beds and new plantings, and it is what most households actually need.

Drip irrigation and soaker hoses deliver water at the root zone with minimal evaporative loss and suit the perennial beds and hedging that make up most of a Newmarket garden.

New sod and seed are the standard hardship case across York Region; municipalities operate grace periods for establishment, and the sensible step is to confirm the current arrangement with the Town before installing rather than after the turf begins to fail.

What a year-round rule means in February

A by-law that applies twelve months a year invites an obvious question: what exactly is it regulating in a Newmarket January, when the ground is frozen and nobody owns a running sprinkler?

The honest answer is that outdoor water use in winter is minimal, and the year-round framing is not primarily about restricting February watering. It does three other things.

First, it removes the annual relearning problem. Seasonal by-laws generate a predictable spike in violations every spring, when an entire municipality has to remember rules it stopped following eight months earlier. Newmarket has no switch-over date, so there is no moment at which the rules change and nobody notices.

Second, it covers the shoulder seasons properly. April and October are genuinely ambiguous under a seasonal by-law — a warm April week produces real irrigation demand at a time when a May-to-September rule has not yet started. Newmarket's rule simply applies.

Third, it covers the outdoor water uses that are not lawn watering. Vehicle washing, pressure washing a deck, filling a hot tub, topping up a pond — these happen year-round in a way lawn irrigation does not, and they draw on the same constrained inland network.

There is also a quieter benefit. A permanent rule is a standing signal about what kind of place this is: a municipality at the far end of a long pumped pipe from Lake Ontario, where demand management is a permanent condition rather than a summer inconvenience. Residents of year-round jurisdictions tend to internalise conservation habits more thoroughly than residents of seasonal ones, because the rule never gives them permission to stop.

In practice, if you are not watering a lawn in February, the by-law is not asking anything of you. It is simply already there when spring arrives.

Common questions about Newmarket water restrictions

Is Newmarket’s watering by-law really in effect all year?

Yes. Newmarket is the only York Region municipality whose odd/even schedule runs twelve months a year rather than switching off at the end of September.

What days and hours can I water?

Odd-numbered addresses on odd calendar dates, even-numbered on even dates, between 6-10 a.m. and 6-10 p.m.

Do I really need to follow it in winter?

The rule applies year-round, though in practice there is very little outdoor water use in a Newmarket January. The value of a permanent rule is that there is no seasonal switch-over to forget.

Why does the smallest municipality have the most continuous rule?

Newmarket sits at the northern end of York Region’s water network — the far end of a long inland pipe from Lake Ontario, with the least delivery headroom. A permanent rule keeps demand predictable where the system is most constrained.

Does rainfall change anything?

No. This is demand management for a pipe network, not a drought measure. Ontario’s drought responses are separate Level 1-3 declarations made by conservation authorities, and they stack on top of the by-law.

Where does Newmarket’s water actually come from?

Lake Ontario, wholesaled through York Region and pumped north. The Holland River that runs through the town drains the other way, toward Lake Simcoe, and has nothing to do with the water supply.

Can my condo corporation fine me over my lawn?

A corporate rule cannot require you to commit a by-law offence, but Ontario has no equivalent to section 121 of B.C.’s Strata Property Act. Handle disputes in writing. This is general information, not legal advice; strata and condo disputes are handled by the Condominium Authority Tribunal.

What about new sod?

York Region municipalities operate grace periods for new sod and seed during establishment. Confirm the current arrangement with the Town before installing.