Evidence of meeting #98 for Health in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was c-326.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bill Casey
Okay. If you could keep them is as brief as you can, we would appreciate it.
Director General, Safe Environments Directorate, Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety Branch, Department of Health
Good afternoon. Thank you for this opportunity.
Drinking water is an important issue for Canadians. The responsibility for ensuring the safety of drinking water is shared between provincial, territorial, federal, and municipal governments. The responsibility for providing safe drinking water to the general public generally rests with the provinces and territories, while municipalities oversee the day-to-day operations of treatment facilities. In first nation communities, the Government of Canada works in collaboration with first nation band councils on the safety of drinking water.
While drinking water is primarily under provincial and territorial jurisdiction, the Government of Canada plays a central role in drinking water safety by providing the scientific basis for guidelines for Canadian drinking water quality and by leading their development. This consensus-based process provides a national basis for federal, provincial, and territorial requirements for drinking water safety.
For over 50 years, Health Canada has played a leadership role in undertaking scientific assessments of pollutants in Canadian drinking water to identify potential risks to Canadians. These assessments take the form of guidelines for Canadian drinking water quality. Health Canada works very closely with provinces, territories and other federal government departments, such as the Department of Indigenous Services Canada, to develop these guidelines and to support their implementation.
Canada's guidelines for Canadian drinking water quality are based on up-to-date, credible, peer-reviewed scientific studies. In developing these guidelines, we also take into consideration the science behind new or updated drinking water standards and guidelines developed by leading agencies around the world when they are relevant for Canadian drinking water. That is to say, Canada develops guidelines needed to address drinking water pollutants that may affect Canadians.
As part of its assessment process, Health Canada routinely monitors and reviews drinking water guidelines and standards developed by leading international agencies, including the European Union, the World Health Organization, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency, not to forget the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council.
The science supporting these international standards and guidelines is taken into consideration when identifying which substances are priorities for establishing future guidelines. The science is also taken into consideration in the development of those guidelines.
The development of standards and guidelines has evolved over the past 50 years in Canada and internationally. Throughout these changes, Health Canada has continued to work on establishing evidence-based guidelines to help ensure the safety of Canadian drinking water. Evolving scientific methods and studies can now provide a much better understanding of how pollutants behave in the body, enabling scientists to more accurately determine potential health risks.
As the science behind assessments of pollutants in drinking water gets more precise and sophisticated, the value of international collaboration becomes increasingly significant. All leading international agencies rely to some extent on the work of others, including Canada. All agencies consider the key studies that have been used by other agencies on pollutants of concern. However, each jurisdiction maintains its own considerations that are specific to its country.
Bill C-326 highlights the need to consider improvement to Health Canada's drinking water program by proposing to amend the Department of Health Act.
If adopted, this bill would, for the first time, set out in legislation the role of the minister with respect to drinking water quality. Specifically, the bill would require the Minister of Health to prepare and table a report in Parliament that reviews the drinking water quality standards in OECD member countries.
Health Canada, however, already focuses on reviewing leading international agencies' standards and science for pollutants that may be of concern in the Canadian environment, such as those of the U.S. EPA. This is because the quality of drinking water standards depends on the quality of water in the environment. A drinking water contaminant in Australia, for example, is not necessarily a concern in Canada because of differences in industry and geology. This means that the substances needing guidelines or standards will vary internationally.
We identify the issues that are specific to Canada and take them into consideration when developing guidelines designed to protect the health of Canadians. The science generated as well as standards developed in other global authorities are not ignored. However, many of the other international agencies rely heavily on the work of the World Health Organization, and the risks from drinking water in these areas are very different from those in the Canadian context.
From a reporting perspective, Health Canada currently identifies which guidelines were finalized, which of them underwent public consultation, and which were in progress in the Canadian Environmental Protection Act's annual report that is tabled each year by the Minister of Environment and Climate Change. However, we do recognize that there is an opportunity to enhance the transparency of drinking water information through existing reporting mechanisms. In particular, information from international comparisons could be added to the report.
Internationally, Canada is considered to be a leader in the development of drinking water quality guidelines. Health Canada is recognized as a collaborating centre for water quality by the World Health Organization. This highlights Canada's international prominence and expertise. As part of this role, the department has been a contributor to all of the World Health Organization's drinking water quality guidelines for the last several decades. We also collaborate with Australia and the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and in particular, our collaboration with the the U.S. EPA has resulted in risk assessments that form the basis for standards or guidelines in both countries.
In conclusion, Canada's collaborative, science-based, and consultative process for developing drinking water quality guidelines is among the best in the world. However, we recognize that the drinking water program in Canada needs to continue to evolve, given how important safe drinking water is to Canadians. In particular, we need to continue to consider the standards and guidelines from other leading international organizations, and also tp assume a leadership role by developing new science and sharing it with other organizations. For example, our science has formed the basis for 12 of the World Health Organization's drinking water quality guidelines in the past 10 years. The program also needs to continue to find ways to enhance transparency and communication with stakeholders.
This is why we are very much looking forward to the discussion on Bill C-326 that is aimed at considering ways in which the drinking water program in Health Canada can be improved to ensure that we continue to safeguard the quality of drinking water for Canadians.
Thank you very much.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bill Casey
We're going to go back to questions.
I believe you're up next, Mr. Scarpaleggia.
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
You really put your finger on it when you said that Health Canada does an excellent job at developing standards, or recommending standards, but that its transparency can always be enhanced. I think that's really the purpose of this bill. It's not to cast doubt on the good work that Health Canada does; we know that Health Canada is an international leader. But we need a way of keeping a check on the level of Health Canada's excellence, if you will, so that Canadians, NGOs, and the media can see whether it is operating up to its own standards of excellence. One could see a situation where funding constraints may lead to Health Canada's work being, perhaps, a little less rigorous, and so on.
The point of this bill is really to require some accountability on the part of Health Canada as to whether it's fully carrying out its mandate to do international comparisons. That's really the purpose. It's not to cast doubt on Health Canada.
I would like to comment on your remarks on the U.S. system. I know that the U.S. system relies a lot on legally enforceable contaminant guidelines, but that's not really what I want to look at. They have a different system in that respect, but they do have a system wherein they have what's called the “contaminant candidate list”. Every five years the EPA is required to select at least five contaminants from the contaminant list and make decisions on whether to regulate those contaminants—and they can decide not to. It's a way of keeping the system dynamic and forward-looking.
I'm wondering whether you think this bill, by just requiring Health Canada to look more closely at the comparisons it's making internationally, would not set in motion that kind of forward-looking process or outlook.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bill Casey
Before we go any further, the bells are ringing. I need an indication from the committee. Do we want to go for a few more questions? We need unanimous consent.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bill Casey
All right, then that ends the meeting.
Thank you very much.
Sorry for this. This is the result of an earlier vote and another vote now. That's our system.
The meeting is adjourned.