In some BC locations, local municipalities meter and charge for water. I have never heard of condos having separate meters. I would not think a 100-unit condo building would have 100 meters, but maybe. The rental condo I own in Victoria has no separate meter. I do not pay a water bill. In fact, I am not sure if the strata corporation pays the bill and it's reckoned into our monthly strata fees, or if it's part of the city taxes each unit owner pays.
I lived in Vancouver and owned my own home and rental houses there for many years. There were no water meters. My guess is same today, unless the city has retro-fitted every house and other building with meters. Water was simply a cost incorporated into annual property taxes. Taxes there, and everywhere else in BC, are set according to the assessed value of each house and lot, or other kind of property. The more the government says your place is worth, the more you pay. I have never really agreed with that approach. I always lived in a nice house on the city's West Side. An equivalent house on the East Side (i.e., east of Main Street), would be worth about half of the West Side house, simply because of location. The net result? I paid twice the property tax of the East Side guy.
In Vancouver, like most places, property tax covered the cost of municipal services, including schools, road maintenance, street lighting, garbage collection, police and fire protection, libraries, water, etc. But why should I pay double, just because I elected to spend my money on a nice house instead of nice cars, expensive vacations, fast women, etc.? Just because I lived on the West Side did not mean that I sent twice as many children to school, used the roads twice as much, threw out twice as much garbage, called the police and fire departments twice as often, etc. Seems that if you choose to spend your money on a nice place, you are deemed to be rich and punished accordingly. The same applies to BC's usurious property transfer tax.
