Evidence of meeting #14 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was federal.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:40 a.m.
Conservative
9:40 a.m.
Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
My understanding, both from the air quality health index as well as the development of the guidelines.... We didn't go back, as part of the audit process, to interview non-governmental organizations and industry associations as well, but everything we've heard from the departments as well as other partners has been that this was a very effective consultation. So we'd assume they're satisfied with the process.
9:40 a.m.
Conservative
Mark Warawa Conservative Langley, BC
Your report, at page 42, says that most participants said they were satisfied with the consultation process.
9:40 a.m.
Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
Excuse me, on the air quality health index, you're right . I'm talking about the guidelines for the water.
For the AQHI, as Mr. Morse mentioned, they did follow the Treasury Board process of getting feedback. Actually, they came back and said this was a really, really good example. They were highly satisfied with the consultative process.
9:40 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Bezan
Thank you.
We're going to go to the five-minute round.
Mr. Trudeau, will you lead us off?
9:40 a.m.
Liberal
Justin Trudeau Liberal Papineau, QC
Thank you.
Commissioner Vaughan, I'd like to talk a bit about bottled water now. Bottled water is a federal area of jurisdiction and responsibility because of the interprovincial nature of it. Bottled water is monitored both by CFIA and Health Canada. The use of bottled water has definitely been on the rise for the past decade or so.
I'm a little concerned that the food and drug regulations only date back to 1973, with some modifications in the 1980s. Can you talk a bit about the guidelines for Canadian drinking water quality and why they don't apply to bottled water?
9:45 a.m.
Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
Thank you very much.
First of all, as you noted, the consumption of bottled water has actually been skyrocketing, and we had a graph on that.
We noted in the report, and you're absolutely correct, that the regulations covering bottled water can basically be traced back 35 years. There has been some updating, but we've said in one of the recommendations that those regulations, in order to be up to date, should take into account the national guidelines that were developed by Health Canada. That's one of the recommendations we've made to this report.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Justin Trudeau Liberal Papineau, QC
Take into account or follow the guidelines for Canadian drinking water quality?
9:45 a.m.
Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
I think it's the latter, actually. You're correct.
What we found in the report is that there was a lack of clarity on who's responsible in terms of roles and responsibilities. The guidelines served as the basis for what CFIA would be specifically looking at in terms of trace residue or contaminants in bottled water.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Justin Trudeau Liberal Papineau, QC
Are municipal water supplies required to adhere to the guidelines for Canadian drinking water quality?
9:45 a.m.
Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
No. As the honourable member previously mentioned, I think the guidelines are essentially normative standards. They're set up as normative standards. There are some provinces that adopt them wholesale and put them in the legislation, and other provinces take some parts and others, but they remain normative standards. They're guidelines. From my understanding, the municipalities would be looking at the provinces to say what the acceptable norms are.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Justin Trudeau Liberal Papineau, QC
Then even in terms of federal institutions, say Parks Canada or Corrections, is it up to those institutions to see whether they adhere to these guidelines?
9:45 a.m.
Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
No, and thanks for the question.
The second part of it is that the federal institutions have a responsibility to comply with the guidelines. The recommendation from a 2005 audit, as Monsieur Arsenault had mentioned...we've said they found there were gaps in those institutions that are under direct federal responsibility; for example, military bases and others. So for those, Health Canada produced what's called a central guidance. That central guidance, one, is anchored to the national guidelines, but two, provides the basis for the inspections of the installations and assets under federal responsibility.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Justin Trudeau Liberal Papineau, QC
To return for a moment to bottled water, Health Canada has been looking for the past seven years at the guidelines. Where are we on that?
9:45 a.m.
Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
It's getting up on eight years now, yes.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Justin Trudeau Liberal Papineau, QC
Okay. There's a mention of a March 31 deadline for publishing a report, which was three weeks ago. Have they published a report on their action on that?
9:45 a.m.
Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
We looked on March 31 and there was nothing on their site. We called the department, and they said it would be any moment. I didn't look this morning, but they did not meet the deadline they set.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Justin Trudeau Liberal Papineau, QC
So Health Canada is not living up to its obligations to protect or to revise the food and drug regulations related to bottled water. Did you set that timeline of March 31 or did they?
9:45 a.m.
Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
No, they set that timeline. That was a commitment they made in their response to the 2005 audit and then in response to this audit as well.
9:45 a.m.
Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
They missed their own deadline, yes.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Justin Trudeau Liberal Papineau, QC
As for the difference between bottled water that is treated tap water and water that is classified as spring water, is there any difference in the application of the guidelines or of the jurisdiction issues around those?
9:45 a.m.
Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
I'll defer to Monsieur Arseneault on that, but I believe the guidelines cover all categories. I think there are four or five categories of bottled water, and they don't differentiate in terms of acceptable levels of trace contaminants within the bottled water.