Mr. Speaker, I welcome the opportunity to address Motion No. 425 put forward by the hon. member for Comox-Alberni. The motion states:
That, in the opinion of this House, the government should support the undertaking of a country-wide program of improving the treatment of municipal sewage to a minimum standard of at least that of primary treatment facilities.
The concern I have about the motion is that such a new country-wide program would only duplicate existing efforts of the federal government, provincial governments and territorial governments.
Our government initiated the Canada infrastructure works program which is geared specifically to upgrading infrastructure. I note that sewage treatment was given a high priority in the program. For example, in my riding of Halifax West, one of the most important and costly projects which the program funded was the upgrading of the Mill Cove sewage treatment plant. It is a very important program which will provide better service for the whole Bedford-Sackville area. That is one of the two largest programs in my riding. The other one relates to road building. Both are solid traditional infrastructure programs.
There are other kinds of infrastructure. These days we have to recognize that even things like fibre optics can be important for infrastructure and for the ability of a community or a country to develop its economic base.
I also note that the Reform Party did not support the infrastructure program when it was first introduced.
I remind hon. members that the primary responsibility of implementing standards or guidelines for fresh water, recreational or drinking water quality and sewage treatment discharges rests with provincial and territorial governments and not with the federal government in Ottawa. The role of the federal government is to supply leadership and advice in support of the provincial and territorial governments through the co-operative establishment of national guidelines and appropriate action in the federal domain.
National guidelines exist in this area and are constantly being updated. For example, through federal and provincial co-operation, health based guidelines for drinking water and recreational water quality are developed. In fact, the fifth edition of "The Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality" was published in May 1993. This document is popular among those who study water quality issues. The document recommends limits for microbiological, chemical and radiological contaminants which have been found in drinking water and are known or suspected to be harmful.
The guidelines are used in all parts of Canada. They are developed in co-operation with the health and environment ministries of the provinces and territories. The guidelines fall under the auspices of the Federal-Provincial Subcommittee on Drinking Water. It is important work which is in progress.
The process began in the 1970s. For this reason among others, Canada's drinking water is one of the safest drinking waters in the world. We have to recognize how fortunate we are in this country to have this supply of safe fresh water.
The impact of standards for sewerage is to protect raw water sources which might be used by Canadians for drinking water or recreational purposes. It is the raw water sources which we are talking about.
The environment is one of the key determinants of population health. We all know these days about the increase in allergies and respiratory illnesses which seem to be traceable to environmental causes. Water quality is an important indicator of our efforts to protect human health in this area.
Of the many environmental factors, the quality of their drinking water is of major concern to Canadians. We know this from a number of public surveys and consultations which the government has undertaken. We also know that Canada is in the enviable position of having great riches of fresh water within its boundaries. I believe that Canada has the greatest resource of fresh water in the world. Approximately 83 countries in the world do not have access to fresh drinking water. It is atrocious. The problem is the greatest in those countries which are highly populated.
Our infrastructure program is a co-operative effort of federal, provincial, territorial and municipal governments. It is already being used to upgrade and improve sewage treatment across the country, just as it is in my riding with the upgrading of the Mill Cove sewage treatment plant. This is in keeping with our red book commitments.
In our present situation, the federal, provincial, territorial and municipal governments are prioritizing the infrastructure works program to benefit all Canadians because we have to look at what is vital to Canadians. Microbiological characteristics of the water are
still considered to be vital to public health protection and for that reason guidelines are under continuous scrutiny.
There are microbiological guidelines for coliform and total bacteria in drinking water. In fact, it was recently updated and sections on viruses and protozoa in finished water are being prepared. Microbiological contaminants will not be removed from source water if we adopt this motion. This motion will not reduce trace chemical contaminants in the fresh water supply to our municipal drinking water systems.
It will not help, for example, in the case of Five Island Lake where the lake system is contaminated by a PCB site or actually an orphan site which has a number of toxins which need to be cleaned up. This motion will not address the problem of that water system.
The establishment of a national primary sewage treatment standard will not improve the microbiological qualities of drinking water, nor will it significantly improve fresh water quality.
One of the important things we should be moving toward in this regard and one of the things happening in Halifax, for example, is the work toward the removal of toxins and other contaminants at source. That is a very important step we have to take. It is a matter of taking responsibility for the quality of our water and what we dump into our sinks and into our water system.
We have an obligation to all Canadians to expend our resources in the most efficient manner possible. Every dollar we spend must have the maximum possible health benefit to the Canadian public. Health Canada has a duty to Canadians to address serious health issues affecting water quality. We are concerned with disease-causing organisms and cancer-causing chemicals in our water. We have to be concerned about those things more and more these days.
These are the serious issues of the day that Health Canada is addressing. These are also the issues that will not be touched on by this proposed motion. Since primary sewage treatment will not reduce organic substances found in source water from municipal drinking water and disinfection is essential to maintain a safe drinking water supply that will protect the public health, the establishment of a minimum standard of primary treatment will have little public health benefit with respect to drinking water.
Water quality improvements are already occurring under the Canada infrastructure works program, the Canada-Ontario agreement to clean up the Great Lakes and the Quebec-Canada entente to address issues in the St. Lawrence River basin.
I believe the member for Comox-Alberni had the best of intentions in putting forward this motion. Unfortunately, it does not address the real problems facing Canadians today. An isolated program to spend large sums of money on municipal sewage treatment will cost Canadian taxpayers dearly without doing much to increase public health protection.
Health Canada is working now in partnership with other levels of government to improve water quality across the country. These are the initiatives we must continue to develop to ensure that the quality of our drinking water remains the envy of the world.