“The new world order in utility metering is no longer defined simply by who builds the best meter, but by who controls the technology, manufacturing, supply chains, and markets. For Canada, the challenge is to navigate a changing global economy without surrendering our independence, competitiveness, or control over the critical infrastructure that powers our future.” – MJ Martin
A Canadian Industry Facing Global Realignment
Canada’s water, gas, and electricity metering industry is entering a period of extraordinary transformation. For decades, utilities purchased meters expected to operate reliably for twenty years. Today, they purchase intelligent computing platforms whose costs, availability, security, and ownership are increasingly influenced by geopolitical forces.
A meter installed in Ontario may contain Asian semiconductors, be manufactured in Mexico, communicate through American technology, and depend upon international cloud infrastructure. Its supply chain resembles a world map compressed into a small box.
Tariffs and Currency: The New Economic Reality
American protectionism is disrupting longstanding North American supply chains. Tariffs, retaliatory measures, and unpredictable trade policies complicate Canadian procurement decisions.
Currency adds another challenge. When the Canadian dollar weakens against its American counterpart, imported equipment becomes more expensive, regardless of tariffs. For multimillion-dollar AMI projects, exchange-rate fluctuations can substantially influence project economics.
Mexico: A Strategic Manufacturing Advantage
Two important metering manufacturers, Badger Meter and Landis+Gyr, already maintain significant manufacturing operations in Mexico.
Badger Meter manufactures and assembles residential water meters and radio endpoints in Nogales, Mexico. According to its investor disclosures, most of these products qualify under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).
Landis+Gyr manufactures residential, commercial, and industrial electricity meters at its Reynosa, Mexico facility, which has supplied millions of meters already to Canadian utilities. The facility has also maintained Measurement Canada accreditation.
These manufacturing locations create an important competitive advantage. Products qualifying as Mexican-origin goods can avoid Canadian retaliatory surtaxes targeting American-origin products. Shipments that do not enter American commerce may also avoid applicable American import tariffs.
However, manufacturing in Mexico does not automatically guarantee tariff exemptions. Rules of origin, component sourcing, product classification, and shipping arrangements remain essential.
For Canadian utilities, Mexico could become an increasingly valuable alternative manufacturing source without abandoning established North American technology suppliers.
Consolidation: Core & Main Acquires KTI
Another consequential development is the confirmed acquisition of Canadian utility metering distributor KTI Limited by American infrastructure giant Core & Main.
KTI’s established Canadian relationships, including its Sensus metering business, provide Core & Main with an important entry into Canada’s utility marketplace.
Core & Main already offers metering equipment, communications infrastructure, software integration, and installation services in the United States. Its Canadian expansion could introduce formidable competition for independent systems integrators.
Consolidation creates opportunities through greater purchasing power and broader capabilities, but also raises concerns about competition, supplier independence, and long-term customer dependency. Canadian buyers like to buy from Canadian suppliers. It is a matter of “trust”.
Technology Is Redefining the Meter
Electricity meters are becoming intelligent grid-edge sensors capable of monitoring voltage, identifying abnormalities, and supporting predictive maintenance.
Water meters increasingly deliver leak detection, consumption intelligence, and improved infrastructure management.
Gas meters are advancing through ultrasonic measurement, remote communications, remote shutoffs, and sophisticated diagnostics.
Artificial intelligence, cellular connectivity, wireless mesh networks, and cloud analytics are transforming ordinary measurements into actionable intelligence.
Yet cybersecurity, interoperability, data sovereignty, and recurring software subscriptions introduce new operational and financial risks.
America’s Changing Global Leadership
The United States remains a technological powerhouse, but its increasingly protectionist policies challenge its traditional leadership as a champion of open international markets.
American innovation remains formidable. What is eroding is confidence in the predictability of American trade policy.
Canada must balance established American partnerships against growing opportunities in Mexico, Europe, Asia, and domestic manufacturing.
Canada’s Strategic Opportunity
Aging infrastructure, climate change, electrification, labour shortages, and constrained municipal budgets are accelerating demand for intelligent utility systems.
However, purchasing decisions must extend beyond equipment prices.
Should Canadian utilities prioritize lowest cost, domestic economic development, supply-chain resilience, or technological independence? Can smaller Canadian integrators compete successfully against increasingly consolidated multinational organizations? The answer is yes, and new Canadian political policies are adding a “Buy Canadian First” agenda.
The new world order is changing who manufactures meters, who distributes them, who installs them, and ultimately who controls the intelligence they generate.
For Canada, this is no longer simply a question of metering technology. It is a question of economic sovereignty, competitive resilience, trust, and control over the critical infrastructure upon which our communities depend.
Supporting sources
Badger Meter’s 2025 Form 10-K confirms its Nogales, Mexico manufacturing operations. Its investor disclosures identify residential meters and radio endpoints as principal products manufactured or assembled there. SEC +1
Landis+Gyr’s manufacturing documentation confirms its Reynosa, Mexico operations. The company also reported that Canadian utilities had purchased more than 5.2 million meters from the facility by June 2016. landisgyr.com +2
The Canada Border Services Agency’s October 23, 2026 customs notice confirms that Canadian surtaxes on specified goods apply according to U.S. origin, not simply the location from which goods are shipped. Canada Border Services Agency +1
The KTI acquisition is characterized as confirmed based on direct confirmation that the transaction has closed.
About the Author:
Michael Martin is the Vice President of Technology with Metercor Inc., a Smart Meter, IoT, and Smart City systems integrator based in Canada. He has more than 40 years of experience in systems design for applications that use broadband networks, optical fibre, wireless, and digital communications technologies. He is a business and technology consultant. He was a senior executive consultant for 15 years with IBM, where he worked in the GBS Global Center of Competency for Energy and Utilities and the GTS Global Center of Excellence for Energy and Utilities. He is a founding partner and President of MICAN Communications and before that was President of Comlink Systems Limited and Ensat Broadcast Services, Inc., both divisions of Cygnal Technologies Corporation (CYN: TSX).
Martin served on the Board of Directors for TeraGo Inc (TGO: TSX) and on the Board of Directors for Avante Logixx Inc. (XX: TSX.V). He has served as a Member, SCC ISO-IEC JTC 1/SC-41 – Internet of Things and related technologies, ISO – International Organization for Standardization, and as a member of the NIST SP 500-325 Fog Computing Conceptual Model, National Institute of Standards and Technology. He served on the Board of Governors of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) [now Ontario Tech University] and on the Board of Advisers of five different Colleges in Ontario – Centennial College, Humber College, George Brown College, Durham College, Ryerson Polytechnic University [now Toronto Metropolitan University]. For 16 years he served on the Board of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), Toronto Section.
He holds three master’s degrees – in business (MBA), communication (MA), and education (MEd). As well, he has three undergraduate diplomas and seven major certifications in business, computer programming, internetworking, project management, media, photography, and communication technology. He has completed over 80 next generation MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) [aka Micro Learning] continuous education programs in a wide variety of topics, including: Economics, Python Programming, Internet of Things, Cloud, Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive systems, Blockchain, Agile, Power BI, Big Data, Design Thinking, Security, Indigenous Canada awareness, and more.
Martin is a volunteer, a photographer, a pilot, a learner, a technologist, a philosophizer, and a romantic optimist.