Mr. Speaker, in response to (a), the number of sites owned and/or operated under cost-shared agreements with provinces and territories is 600, nearly 300 of which are in the Great Lakes.
In response to (b), the key purpose is to determine water quality status and trends and assess overall aquatic ecosystem health. Some monitoring or surveillance is also undertaken to better understand presence and levels of emerging contaminants and threats such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers, PBDEs, used in flame retardants, pesticides, and other persistent organic pollutants. The data and generated information is used in many different reporting activities including the Water Quality Index under the Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators, CESI, annual report (http://www.environmentandresources.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=6F66F932-1).
Some of the key obligations and legislative responsibilities that Environment Canada's monitoring activities fall under include: Canadian Environmental Protection Act, CEPA, ministerial statutory obligation to monitor and report on environmental quality to Canadians; Boundary Waters Treaty Act, obligations to the International Joint Commission and the parties; and Canada Water Act, provides for federal-provincial and federal-territorial agreements to monitoring and assess waters of shared interest.
In response to (c), the government monitors the quality of surface water through (a), Environment Canada monitoring and surveillance sites; (b) formal cost and capacity sharing agreements with provinces and territories; and (c) collaborative monitoring and surveillance programs among federal science and technology departments and university researchers.
Sampling of water bodies is done on a regular or ad hoc basis several times a year for a wide range of physical parameters, chemical contaminants and biological measures, e.g., temperature, dissolved oxygen, nutrients, trace metals, pesticides, presence and diversity of aquatic biota. Sampling locations take into account the diverse contaminant sources and water quality threats such as urban wastewaters, industrial effluents, agricultural runoff and atmospheric deposits. In addition to physical-chemical monitoring, we have started to establish a network of biological monitoring that will allow assessing impacts and effects of contaminants on aquatic ecosystems health.
In response to (d), the current program provides an adequate picture for basic water quality measures and contaminants in areas of the country where spatial and temporal coverage has been established for some time, e.g., large basins such as the Great Lakes. However, in most basins or watersheds across Canada, the government’s understanding of the types and levels of contaminants in surface waters varies.
Nationally, we monitor about a third of total sub-basins under the routine monitoring programs, which mainly address metals and nutrients. Surveillance projects focusing on toxic organic contaminants--pesticides--PCBs, polychlorinated biphenyls, PBDEs, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, and other CEPA toxics are more spatially restricted to watersheds potentially threatened.