Madam Speaker, Canada has a remarkable history of collaboration and co-operation among the federal government, ten provinces and two, soon to be three, territories in the north. I say remarkable because this is a vast country, an impressive land mass of nearly 10 million square kilometres from the tip of St. John's, Newfoundland, in the east to the Queen Charlotte Islands off the coast of British Columbia in the west.
This level of agreement and working together is something most countries have come to envy and in some cases study to see how we do it. The protection of drinking water is one of our proudest co-operative achievements.
This new legislation, Bill C-14, the drinking water materials safety act demonstrates our continuing partnership with the provinces and territories and the vigilance with which we guard the health and safety of all Canadians. According to the Constitution acts of Canada, drinking water quality from the source to the tap falls under the provincial and territorial jurisdictions. The federal government however is responsible for protecting Canadians from unsafe materials that come into contact with that water along the way, from the raw water intake through the filtration plant and then through the water mains to our faucets.
The new act will help better protect drinking water by guaranteeing the safety of the materials that come into contact with that water while it is moved to the consumers.
Again we are doing this with the support of the provincial and territorial health authorities. Canada has one of the largest safest supplies of fresh water in the world. We want to keep it that way. But the quality of that water has often been threatened and in the 1990s it is falling prey to some new hazards.
A rapidly increasing population puts more pressure on the existing water supply and distribution systems. There are new concerns about the use of pesticides and chemical effluents runoff from spraying farmers' fields. In recent years there has been an alarming increase in cases of animal waste washing into municipal water systems and making many people sick. This has put provincial and municipal governments under growing pressure to safeguard their drinking water. The public at large is becoming more and more concerned about its tap water and is rightly demanding guarantees of safety.
Municipalities need to replace aging infrastructures and they need health based standards to ensure that new materials they buy are safe. In some cases costly new kinds of treatment systems are required to deal with the emerging problems such as cryptosporidium infections which cannot be eliminated by chlorination.
All of these concerns and more were cited when the provinces and territories put their support behind the drinking water materials safety act currently before this House. I cannot emphasize too strongly that the distinct federal, provincial and territorial jurisdictions with respect to drinking water quality will continue to be recognized after the introduction of this bill.
In fact this bill affirms both the federal government's responsibility to provide guidance and expertise in the area of drinking water quality and the right of the provinces and the territories to define legally enforceable standards within their own areas of authority. This bill also acknowledges the federal government's role in developing water quality research in collaboration with the provinces and territories.
Responsibility for the overall quality of water that flows through the system will remain with the provinces. The federal government with this new bill will guarantee that all the materials that come in contact with our water are certified to national health based standards. We will be responsible for the regulation of drinking water materials that make up the distribution system along the way. These fall into three categories: treatment devices, treatment additives and system components.
Quite simply, drinking water materials can be anything, including products and substances, that comes in contact with our drinking water from the time it leaves the water supply until it touches our lips. That includes the chlorine added to municipal water supplies, the pipes that carry the water, right down to the filters you may attach to your faucets at home. All of these products and many others I have not mentioned will fall under this legislation.
Why do we need to do this? Because safe drinking water is an essential resource. Because Canadians expect their water to be protected. And because present federal legislation and existing voluntary compliance on water materials safety are inadequate.
I know that just moments ago I was boasting about our enviable supply of safe drinking water. Indeed we have some of the best drinking water in the world. This is partly a fortunate circumstance of history and geography.
But the ongoing protection of our fresh water is no accident. In partnership with the provinces and territories, we have spent years developing the guidelines for Canadian drinking water quality. Since 1968 Canada has published these guidelines for safe drinking water. They recommend maximum levels of many chemicals, micro-organisms and radioactive substances. We are pleased to note that the sixth edition of these important and respected guidelines was published last fall.
These guidelines serve as the basis for drinking water quality enforcement in the provinces and territories. Alberta and Quebec have both enacted water quality regulations based on these guidelines. Other provinces are enforcing them through their own provincial mechanisms.
This partnership has been working extremely well but we must do more. These guidelines do not have the added weight of being federal law. The provinces and territories have asked us for that added leverage in protecting drinking water materials right across Canada.
This bill will ensure that drinking water materials are certified to health based standards enforced by law. They will give Canadians better control over potentially hazardous drinking water materials that could contaminate drinking water.
Home water filters are a good example. There are many of these products available to consumers at every hardware store, department store and shopping mall.
When we buy one of these filters, we have no guarantee that it will do what the maker claims, which is to improve the quality of drinking water.
In fact we know that while many of these products are reliable, a full 50% would fail a health based test. This is a growing industry. There are false health and safety claims being made and consumers do not always have the means to compare one product against another. This bill will allow direct comparison based on the same standards tests. These devices are just one area of concern.
There is the sale of chemicals of uncertified quality to water treatment plants and the leaching of contaminants, such as lead and cadmium, from water storage and delivery systems. This bill will guarantee the quality of these chemicals and the safety of water system components.
I am also proud to say that the drinking water materials safety act will build upon the unique collaborative and co-operative working relationship Canada has enjoyed with the other jurisdictions in this country.
The Assembly of First Nations in partnership with Health Canada and the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development is currently working on a project to identify solutions to assist First Nations communities in protecting and enhancing the quality of their drinking water. This project is known as the drinking water safety program for native people. Since the drinking water materials safety act is national legislation which will regulate all drinking water materials on the market in Canada, it would of course affect future purchases of material for use on Indian lands.
Ongoing discussions with provincial and territorial members of the subcommittee on drinking water indicate continued support for federal legislation to improve the safety and effectiveness of devices, additives and components. Direct consultation with the provincial departments of health also revealed strong support for this legislation.
When Health Canada crafted this legislation, its officials wanted to make sure they were not adding a layer of red tape to the existing guidelines. This proposed legislation will not duplicate or replace local and provincial plumbing codes for example. In fact it will give much needed support to the provinces in their efforts toward compliance and enforcement of these codes. Current Canadian plumbing codes do not contain health based performance standards and the vast majority, a full 70%, of plumbing materials are not certified as free from harmful contaminants. This is simply unacceptable.
Again provincial drinking water authorities have asked the federal government to act as a clearing house by guaranteeing health based standards through a process of third party certification. This bill will do that. It would be far too costly for each province to run its own separate certification program. If they did, a costly and confusing patchwork of legislation would result.
I also want to assure my colleagues that this bill will not force the provinces and territories to rip out their existing water systems and put in new ones. What it will do however is ensure that those municipalities who need to build new water distribution systems will buy safe infrastructure materials.
The provinces and territories will also find their home grown products on a level playing field, opening the door to international markets but closing the door to unscrupulous manufacturers and substandard products which right now can easily be dumped into Canada because there is no federal legislation to prevent it.
I think many members of this House and many consumers will be shocked to discover that a country like Canada has not had such a basic piece of legislation in place long before now. In fact drinking water legislation was first proposed by a Liberal government in 1983 but it is only now that the Liberals are finally in a position to make good on this commitment to protect the health of Canadians.
The public is worried about issues concerning health and the environment, such as the contamination of drinking water.
Canadians will remember this government's strong commitment to protect the health of women and children and the need to stop long term toxic pollutants from entering our water. This legislation will make good on these promises.
As I said earlier, the protection of drinking water quality is a co-operative venture in Canada, one which we can all be proud of. We have made great strides in making drinking water safer over the past century and we have done so in partnership with our many distinct regions.
I urge my colleagues to seize this opportunity to once again work in conjunction with our provincial and territorial constituencies. I urge members of the House to give their wholehearted support to this legislation.