The city of Montreal has issued a call for tenders in connection with three contracts to install non-residential water meters.

It's for nearly three-thousand retail, industrial and institutional meters.

In a release, the city's point man on the matter, Richard Deschamps, says the meters are necessary to measure the usage of what he calls a collective wealth.

More than 16-thousand water meters are expected to be installed by 2018.

The city cancelled a 350-million dollar plus water meter contract in 2009 after Montreal's auditor general said the contract to a company called GENIeau was issued too quickly and that it was too expensive. 

In January, GENIeau collected millions from the city as a result of the cancellation.