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INFORME
ANALÍTICO
ÍNDICE
The financial responsibility for the provision of water and sanitation services in Canada lies with municipal governments (for centrally provided services) or with individual property owners where central services are not available. Municipal governments, although assisted from time to time by provincial or by federal-provincial infrastructure funding initiatives, are moving towards achieving full cost pricing of water and sanitation services.
The environmental and public health regulation of water and sanitation services is for the most part the responsibility of the provincial or territorial governments who provide certificates of approval to the operators of public water and wastewater systems for the design, construction and operation of water and sanitation services, and who have the responsibility for monitoring and inspecting those services. They also regulate private water and wastewater systems outside central service areas. The federal government has a similar responsibility for water and sanitation services provided exclusively on federal and First Nations’ Lands.
Environmental and public health guidelines for water quality (both drinking water and wastewater) are developed in Canada by federal-provincial consultative groups and are largely based on environmental and public health research carried out by the federal departments of environment (Environment Canada) and health (Health Canada). These form the basis for provincial or territorial government guidelines or standards, as may be. The national guidelines are published as the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality and the Canadian Environmental Quality Guidelines. The federal government has also established separately Guidelines for Effluent Quality and Wastewater Treatment at Federal Establishments.
The vast majority of Canadians enjoy access to adequate supplies of safe drinking water and effective sanitation services, either provided centrally or through individual residential systems whose construction and operation is subject to regulatory requirements. Water borne diseases are not considered a problem in Canada, although protozoan problems are known. Two or three systems out of more than 3000 may be subject to short term cryptosporidiosis or giardiosis outbreaks annually, and precautionary boil water advisories may be issued by local health authorities from time to time, normally following extreme environmental events impacting on raw water quality.
Private sector involvement in the water and sanitation sector is significant, both in the supply of products and services to the municipal systems, and increasingly in their operation and management - approximately 25% of the 24 million Canadians receiving central water and sanitation services do so from municipally owned systems for which the management or operation may be contracted to other parties. The infrastructure for these services is almost completely publicly owned by the municipalities concerned and this situation is likely to remain, although design, build, operate and transfer arrangements are being joined by private sector organized financing arrangements.
Financial limitations and uncertainty will continue to inhibit rapid changes in treatment technology or processes, but the services will be maintained at their current or even higher levels of quality. The inherent problems of short-term politically-influenced financial budgeting cycles and planning in comparison to the need for financial planning cycles of 40 to 100 years will continue to be faced and not resolved . Changing the practice of having prices charged for water supply based on cost and not on value will continue - water and sanitation services are seen as a public service and as being not-for-profit services.
Educational institutions and the water and wastewater Associations both contribute to a significant level of research and information exchange activities, and requirements for operator training are becoming both stricter and more frequently mandatory. Human resource development, like technological development has been an important contributor to the sustainable water and sanitation sector in Canada.
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