I’ll grant you that Montreal does seem to have slightly higher usage per capita. But I’m not sure the extra pain in the ass of managing water meter infrastructure would be meaningful to reduce water usage to be in line with metered locations, when we’re talking about a difference of 17L a day.
You start with a claim about empiricism while using anecdotes which is an interesting choice
Ok. The EPA estimates that the average American uses 82 gallons a day as of 2015, which comes out to 310L.
EPA link
By contrast, McGill University cites that the average Canadian uses around 329L a day.
McGill water usage page
Montreal, specifically as an unmetered water city, estimates 327L a day.
City of Montreal annual water usage report
I’ll grant you that Montreal does seem to have slightly higher usage per capita. But I’m not sure the extra pain in the ass of managing water meter infrastructure would be meaningful to reduce water usage to be in line with metered locations, when we’re talking about a difference of 17L a day.
Except that’s a difference if 17L (roughly 4 gallons) every day. That’s almost a US standard toilet flush