Water supply and sanitation in Canada
Encyclopedia
| Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... : Water and Sanitation |
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!align="center" bgcolor="lightblue" colspan="3"|Data
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!align="left" valign="top"|Water coverage (broad definition)
|valign="top"| 100%
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!align="left" valign="top"|Sanitation coverage (broad definition)
|valign="top"| 100%
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!align="left" valign="top"|Continuity of supply (%)
|valign="top"| 100%
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!align="left" valign="top"|Average urban water use (l/c/d)
|valign="top"| 343
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!align="left" valign="top"|Average urban water tariff (US$/m3)
|valign="top"|
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!align="left" valign="top"|Share of household metering
|valign="top"| 56% (1999)
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!align="left" valign="top"|Share of collected wastewater treated
|valign="top"| 97%
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!align="left" valign="top"|Annual investment in WSS
|valign="top"| n/a
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!align="left" valign="top"|Share of self-financing by utilities
|valign="top"| partial
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!align="left" valign="top"|Share of tax-financing
|valign="top"| partial
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!align="left" valign="top"|Share of external financing
|valign="top"| none
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!align="center" bgcolor="lightblue" colspan="3"|Institutions
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!align="left" valign="top"|Decentralization to municipalities
|valign="top"| Full
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!align="left" valign="top"|National water and sanitation company
|valign="top"| No
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!align="left" valign="top"|Water and sanitation regulator
|valign="top"| Yes, in some provinces
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!align="left" valign="top"|Responsibility for policy setting
|valign="top"| Department of Environment and Department of Health
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!align="left" valign="top"|Sector law
|valign="top"| No (only for water resources)
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!align="left" valign="top"|Number of urban service providers
|valign="top"|
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!align="left" valign="top"|Number of rural service providers
|valign="top"| n/a
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Water supply and sanitation in Canada is nearly universal and generally of good quality. It is a municipal responsibility under the regulation of the provincial governments, in partnership with the federal government. Water use in Canada is high compared to Europe, since water tariffs are low and 44% of users are not metered
Water metering
Water metering is the process of measuring water use through water meters.- Prevalence :Water metering is common for residential and commercial drinking water supply in many countries, as well as for industrial self-supply with water. However, it is less common in irrigated agriculture, which is...
.
Despite a commitment by the federal government to promote increased cost recovery, only 50% of the cost of maintaining and operating water infrastructure is actually being recovered from users through tariffs, the rest being financed through taxes.
Access and service quality
Access to water supplyWater supply
Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavours or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes...
in Canada is nearly universal. Concerning sanitation
Sanitation
Sanitation is the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the hazards of wastes. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health problems are human and animal feces, solid wastes, domestic...
, nearly 75% of Canadians are serviced by municipal sewer systems. The remaining 25 percent of the Canadian population is served by septic disposal systems
Septic tank
A septic tank is a key component of the septic system, a small-scale sewage treatment system common in areas with no connection to main sewage pipes provided by local governments or private corporations...
.
Water supply
Canadian drinking water supplies are generally of excellent quality and supply is continuous.On occasion, however, despite the best efforts of water suppliers and in some cases for reasons beyond their control, municipal water supplies can become contaminated either chemically or biologically. If this occurs, residents typically are advised to take precautionary measures, such as boiling water before consuming it. In an average year, some 500 boil water advisories normally of 3 to 4 day durations, are issued in respect to municipal water supply services, often following severe environmental conditions affecting the quality of the water supply source.
An unusually extreme case of poor water quality has been The Walkerton Tragedy
Walkerton Tragedy
The Walkerton Tragedy is a series of events that accompanied the contamination of the water supply of Walkerton, Ontario, Canada, by E. coli bacteria in May 2000.-Summary:Walkerton is a relatively small community located in Ontario...
, a series of events that accompanied the contamination of the water supply of Walkerton, Ontario
Walkerton, Ontario
Walkerton is a community in the Canadian province of Ontario, located within and governed by the municipality of Brockton. It is the site of Brockton's municipal offices and the county seat of Bruce County...
, by E. coli
Escherichia coli O157:H7
Escherichia coli O157:H7 is an enterohemorrhagic strain of the bacterium Escherichia coli and a cause of foodborne illness. Infection often leads to hemorrhagic diarrhea, and occasionally to kidney failure, especially in young children and elderly persons...
bacteria in 2000. In 2001 a similar outbreak in North Battleford, Saskatchewan caused by the protozoan Cryptosporidium
Cryptosporidium
Cryptosporidium is a protozoan that can cause gastro-intestinal illness with diarrhea in humans.Cryptosporidium is the organism most commonly isolated in HIV positive patients presenting with diarrhea...
affected at least 5,800 people.
Sanitation
In many cities and communities across Canada, treatment of wastewater is either insufficient or non-existent. Although some communities have advanced wastewater treatment plants, many others are dumping untreated or poorly treated liquid waste into natural water systems. Fifteen percent of inland communities undertake only primary level wastewater treatment. Coastal communities face the greatest challenges, with the majority having only primary treatment, and some, no treatment at all. And even when there is adequate wastewater treatment, stormwater can cause the sewer system to overflow, allowing raw sewage to spill directly into our rivers, lakes, and oceans.In 1999, 97% of the Canadian population on sewers received some form of wastewater treatment
Wastewater Treatment
Wastewater treatment may refer to:* Sewage treatment* Industrial wastewater treatment...
. The remaining 3% of Canadians served by sewage collection systems were not connected to wastewater treatment facilities in 1999 and discharged their untreated sewage directly into receiving water bodies.
Link to water resources
The drainage area of greatest concern is the South Saskatchewan, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
and Assiniboine
Assiniboine River
The Assiniboine River is a river that runs through the prairies of Western Canada in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It is a tributary of the Red River. The Assiniboine is a typical meandering river with a single main channel embanked within a flat, shallow valley in some places and a steep valley in...
-Red area. Flows in the South Saskatchewan are fully allocated and predictions of glacial retreat and reduced winter snow coverage due to global warming may significantly impact a river system that relies on glacial and snow melt for most of its summer flows.
Municipal water supply accounts for 12% of water use in Canada. The other main water users are cooling water for power generation (64%), manufacturing (14%) and agriculture (9%).
Montreal The water supply of Montréal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
is taken from lac Saint-Louis, lac des Deux-Montagnes, Rivière des Prairies
Rivière des Prairies
The Rivière des Prairies is a delta channel of the Ottawa River in southwestern Quebec, Canada....
and the St. Lawrence River. This water is then treated in seven plants with a daily capacity of 2,917,000 m³ for 1.8 million residents and industries, businesses and institutions. Wastewater is collected in sewers and interceptors on its way to the wastewater treatment plant
Sewage treatment
Sewage treatment, or domestic wastewater treatment, is the process of removing contaminants from wastewater and household sewage, both runoff and domestic. It includes physical, chemical, and biological processes to remove physical, chemical and biological contaminants...
of the Island of Montréal
Island of Montreal
The Island of Montreal , in extreme southwestern Quebec, Canada, is located at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers. It is separated from Île Jésus by the Rivière des Prairies....
. The Rivière des Prairies
Rivière des Prairies
The Rivière des Prairies is a delta channel of the Ottawa River in southwestern Quebec, Canada....
used to receive massive discharges of untreated wastewater from the city, turning it into essentially an open sewer; however, ecological intervention and modern wastewater treatment reversed the damage and the river is now considered clean, and suitable for swimming. A CAN$ 10 billion investment program is underway in Montreal to upgrade water treatment plants, to replace ageing water pipes and to install roughly 23,000 meters for industries, businesses and institutions until 2013.
Ottawa Most of Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
's drinking water is drawn from the Ottawa River
Ottawa River
The Ottawa River is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. For most of its length, it now defines the border between these two provinces.-Geography:...
and treated at the City’s two water purification plants at Britannia and Lemieux Island. Its wastewater is discharged after treatment in the city's wastewater treatment plant called the Robert O. Pickard Environmental Centre. Most houses are metered and an average resident of Ottawa uses approximately 250 litres of water a day.
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
obtains all its drinking water from Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south by the American state of New York. Ontario, Canada's most populous province, was named for the lake. In the Wyandot language, ontarío means...
. It is then treated in four treatment plants, three along the shore of the lake and one on Centre Island. Wastewater is treated in four wastewater treatment plants. Average household use was 315 cubic metres/year in 2006. The average annual water and wastewater bill in 2006 was CAN$429 for metered customers. In 2006, there were about 72,000 un-metered customers in Toronto. In 2007 the City began providing meters to flat-rate customers and upgrading meters of all 465,000 other customers to enable automated, radio-based meter reading until 2015.
Capilano Lake
Capilano Lake is a lake located in the District of North Vancouver and West Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. It is a watershed administered by the Metro Vancouver and accounts for approximately 40% of Greater Vancouver's water supply...
, Seymour
Seymour River (Vancouver)
The Seymour River is a river in North Vancouver, British Columbia which is notable for being several degrees warmer than other streams and lakes in the area. This is due to it being fed from a large reservoir backed up behind a dam from which a constant flow of water is released.The Seymour River...
and Coquitlam
Coquitlam Lake
Coquitlam Lake is a reservoir located just north of Coquitlam, British Columbia. It is one of the three main water sources for Metro Vancouver, and also a part of BC Hydro's power generation system...
Watersheds. In case of heavy rains the turbidity
Turbidity
Turbidity is the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by individual particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye, similar to smoke in air. The measurement of turbidity is a key test of water quality....
(cloudiness) in some reservoirs increases, so that water from the Coquitlam Watershed that is usually much less affected by turbidity is used to also serve municipalities that are normally served by the Capilano and Seymour Watersheds. Once the new Seymour/Capilano water filtration plant will be completed in 2009, no more turbidity is expected. In summer, there are often water restrictions due to peak demand and the depletion of water in the mountain reservoirs. In 2008 Metro Vancouver launched a campaign inviting the region’s residents to make a “tap water pledge” to drink tap water in refillable bottles instead of buying single-use plastic water bottles, with the goal to reduce sales of bottled water by 20 per cent by 2010. The region’s wastewater is treated in one of five wastewater treatment plants operated by Metro Vancouver, two of which use primary treatment and the remaining three use secondary treatment.
Water use
Residential consumers in Canada used 343 litres per person per day, or roughly twice as much per person as in other industrialized countries, with the exception of the United StatesWater supply and sanitation in the United States
Issues that affect water supply and sanitation in the United States include water scarcity, pollution, a backlog of investment, concerns about the affordability of water for the poorest, and a rapidly retiring workforce...
. and Australia. According to one source water use in Montreal, where there is little metering, is particularly high at 1,287 liter per person per day in 1999.
According to the Environment Canada, the following sectors account for the following shares of municipal water use:
- 52% residential users
- 19% commercial users
- 16% industrial users
- 13% leakage.
However, a different part of the same web site of Environment Canada states that leakage losses are actually much higher at “up to 30%”.
See also: Non-revenue water
Non-revenue water
Non revenue water is water that has been produced and is “lost” before it reaches the customer. Losses can be real losses or apparent losses . High levels of NRW are detrimental to the financial viability of water utilities, as well to the quality of water itself...
Standards
The Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality of 1968 set guidelines for drinking water qualityWater quality
Water quality is the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of water. It is a measure of the condition of water relative to the requirements of one or more biotic species and or to any human need or purpose. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which...
standards in Canada, developed by Health Canada with the provincial and territorial governments and setting out the maximum acceptable concentrations of these substances in drinking water. The drinking water guidelines are designed to protect the health of the most vulnerable members of society, such as children and the elderly. The guidelines set out the basic parameters that every water system should strive to achieve in order to provide the cleanest, safest and most reliable drinking water possible.
Three Canadian provinces require all public water supplies to be disinfected, while other provinces require disinfection only for surface water supplies.
Responsibility for water supply and sanitation
While the responsibility for the provision of water supply and sanitation services in Canada lies with municipalities, the provincial governments and the federal government also have important responsibilities related to the setting of standards, research, economic regulation and water resources management. As all levels of government hold key policy and regulatory levers which apply to water and sanitation, a central challenge is to ensure that these levers are developed and used collaboratively. The Canadian Council of Ministers of the EnvironmentCanadian Council of Ministers of the Environment
The Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment is an inter-governmental organization in Canada with members from the federal government, ten provincial governments and three territorial governments...
- which consists of the 14 environment ministers from the federal, provincial and territorial governments - plays an important role in the development of national strategies, norms and guidelines for water supply and sanitation.
The need and the difficulty to collaborate between different levels of government is apparent in the discussion of a proposed national municipal wastewater effluents strategy. According to the Canadian Water and Wastewater Association
Provinces and territories
The governing of drinking water and sanitation in Canada falls under provincial/territorial jurisdiction.The provinces and territories
Provinces and territories of Canada
The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second-largest country by area. There are ten provinces and three territories...
are responsible for developing and enforcing all legislation pertaining to municipal and public water supplies including their construction and operation.
Each province also has a public utility commission or board for the economic regulation of utilities. In many, but not in all provinces, these bodies also regulate tariffs and service quality of water and sewer utilities.
Under the Constitution Act, 1867
Constitution Act, 1867
The Constitution Act, 1867 , is a major part of Canada's Constitution. The Act created a federal dominion and defines much of the operation of the Government of Canada, including its federal structure, the House of Commons, the Senate, the justice system, and the taxation system...
, the provinces are "owners" of the water resources and have wide responsibilities in their day-to-day management. Each province has its own legislation related to water resources, water supply and the environment.
The Federal Government
The federal government has certain specific responsibilities relating to water, such as fisheries and navigation, as well as exercising certain overall responsibilities such as the conduct of external affairs. Within the federal government, over 20 departments and agencies have responsibilities for freshwater. The 1987 Federal Water Policy, which remains valid today, has two main goals with respect to water: To protect and enhance the quality of the water resource and to promote the wise and efficient management and use of water. The Canada Water Act (proclaimed on September 30, 1970) provides the framework for cooperation with provinces and territories in the conservation, development, and utilization of Canada's water resources. The Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, completes the framework for the protection and of water resources. Environment CanadaEnvironment Canada
Environment Canada , legally incorporated as the Department of the Environment under the Department of the Environment Act Environment Canada (EC) (French: Environnement Canada), legally incorporated as the Department of the Environment under the Department of the Environment Act Environment...
is the federal department (Ministry) in charge of conserving and protecting Canada's water resources. Health Canada
Health Canada
Health Canada is the department of the government of Canada with responsibility for national public health.The current Minister of Health is Leona Aglukkaq, a Conservative Member of Parliament appointed to the position by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.-Branches, regions and agencies:Health Canada...
is the federal department in charge of protecting the health of all Canadians by developing the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality in partnership with the provinces and territories. Infrastructure Canada
Infrastructure Canada
Infrastructure Canada is part of the Transport, Infrastructure and Communities portfolio of the Government of Canada. Established in August 2002, the organization was formerly associated with Treasury Board Secretariat, the Privy Council Office, Industry Canada, and Environment Canada...
, a department established in 2002, is a focal point for the Government of Canada on infrastructure issues and programs within the larger Transport, Infrastructure and Communities (TIC) portfolio.
Service provision
Service provision is the responsibility of about 4,000 municipalities. Municipalities in Canada are not mentioned in the constitution and thus depend heavily on provincial governments, which can create or dissolve municipalities, determine municipal responsibilities and what taxes municipalities can levy and set standards for service delivery. Many provinces prohibit municipalities from running an operating deficit and restrict municipal borrowing to capital expenditures, while providing them conditional and unconditional transfers.While most municipalities provide water and sewer services directly, a few municipalities have delegated service provision to private companies or to public companies owned by Provinces.
For example, the Ontario Clean Water Agency
Ontario Clean Water Agency
The Ontario Clean Water Agency is a Crown agency of the Province of Ontario that provides operation, maintenance and management services for more than 450 water and wastewater treatment facilities in the province.-History:...
(OCWA), a Crown agency of the Province of Ontario, provides operation, maintenance and management services for more than 450 water and wastewater treatment facilities in the province on behalf of about 200 Ontario municipalities.
Metro Vancouver provides treated bulk water to its constituent municipalities in Greater Vancouver, and collects and treats their wastewater.
Overall there are approximately 9,000 public water and sanitation systems in the country. These include about 2,500 municipally owned water and sewer utilities in urban areas and approximately 6,500 small privately owned and operated systems providing public services in or at trailer parks and recreational facilities such as camp grounds, golf courses and ski facilities, etc.
Human resources Some 300,000 Canadians were directly employed in the operation of these municipal services in the late 1990s, and although statistics are not available for those employed in the private supplier sector, it is likely to be to the same order.
Business associations The Canadian Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA), established in 1986, is a non-profit national body representing the common interests of Canada’s public sector municipal water and wastewater services and their private sector suppliers and partners. CWWA is recognized by the federal government and national bodies as the national voice of this public service sector.
Tariff structure
In 1999, 44% of Canadian residences served by municipal water systems were not metered.A 2001 study of rate structures by Environment Canada showed that in 1999, 43 percent of the population was under a flat rate structure where the charge or assessment is fixed, regardless of the amount of water used. Another 12 percent were under a declining block rate structure (where the consumer's bill rises at a slower rate as higher volumes of water are used); i.e., the more you use, the less you pay per unit. Thus 55% of Canadians faced residential water use charges that discouraged water conservation. Water use was 70% higher when consumers face flat monthly rates rather than volume-based rates.
Only about 45 percent of the population served was found to be under a rate structure that provided an incentive to conserve water: 36 percent were under a constant rate structure (where the bill to the consumer climbs uniformly with the volume used); and 9 percent were under an increasing block rate structure (where a successively higher price is changed as larger volumes of water are used).
Tariff level
The price Canadians pay for water varies significantly across the country. Analysis of the 1999 Municipal Water Pricing Survey prepared in 2001 indicates that the average domestic water user (assuming 25 000 litres per month) pays CAN$1.14 for 1000 litres. This value has increased substantially in recent years from about 82 cents per 1000 litres in 1991, and nationally, now includes a waste treatment component of about 39%.The Municipal Water and Wastewater Survey covered over 1200 Canadian municipalities..
List of water and sewer rates in Canada by municipality
Cost recovery
According to the 1987 federal water policy the federal government is committed to the concept of "a fair value for water." To implement this concept in federal policies, programs and initiatives, the federal government has committed, among other things, to endorse the concept of realistic pricing as a direct means of controlling demand and generating revenues to cover costs.Nevertheless, in 1999 only 50% of the cost of maintaining and operating water infrastructure was actually being met through cost recovery from users of the systems.
Investment and financing
Investment needs According to the National Round Table on the Environment and Economy, unmet water and wastewater infrastructure needs in Canada were CAN$38–49 billion in 1996, and capital costs for the following 20 years would be in the order of CAN$70–90 billion.Financing It was estimated that in the late 1990s the total annual operating cost of water and sanitation services were greater than US $2.75 billions while the revenue generated from user fees is to the order of US $ 2.1 billions. The difference is made up from general municipal revenues (e.g., property taxes or subsidies from senior levels of government).
The greatest portion of investment in water and sanitation infrastructure and services has been financed by municipal governments from revenues derived from general property taxes or from water and sanitation charges which are increasingly moving to the state of full cost pricing. All Provinces and Territories provide funds via transfers to the municipal governments in their jurisdictions. The federal contribution, while significant in absolute terms (for example, in the period 1993 to 1998 the amount was in excess of US $1.4 billion), represents only a small proportion of total public investments in municipal infrastructure.
Provincial financing Provinces provide both conditional grants (more than 80%) and unconditional grants (less than 20%) to municipalities. Conditional grants can either be lump-sum payments (non-matching transfers) or matching grants. Matching grants provide a certain percentage of financing that varies among Provinces and programs, while requiring the balance to be paid by the municipality.
Federal financing Infrastructure Canada
Infrastructure Canada
Infrastructure Canada is part of the Transport, Infrastructure and Communities portfolio of the Government of Canada. Established in August 2002, the organization was formerly associated with Treasury Board Secretariat, the Privy Council Office, Industry Canada, and Environment Canada...
manages a number of federal funds financing investments in Canada’s infrastructure. None of these funds is dedicated exclusively to water supply and sanitation. The funds managed by the department include three funds under the Building Canada program:
- CAN$8.8 billion for the Building Canada Fund (BCF), which is being used for Core National Highway Systems, drinking water, wastewater, public transit and green energy, as well as other projects;
- CAN$25 million a year in base funding to each province and territory, for a total of $2.275 billion over seven years; and
- CAN$11.8 billion for the Gas Tax Fund, which invests in municipal infrastructure that contributes to cleaner air, cleaner water and reduced greenhouse gas emissions and supports better community planning.