Skip to main content
Disciplines
Automotive Business IT + Informatics Construction + Real Estate Electrical Engineering + Electronics Energy + Sustainability Insurance + Risk Finance + Banking Management + Leadership Marketing + Sales Mechanical Engineering + Materials
Events
DE
EN
Books
Journals
Start single access now
Request access for companies
EXTENDED SEARCH
Log in
Top

Hint

Swipe to navigate through the chapters of this book

Published in:
Introduction Read chapter Read first chapter

2017 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

16. Canadian Drinking Water Policy: Jurisdictional Variation in the Context of Decentralized Water Governance

Authors : Gemma Dunn, Leila Harris, Karen Bakker

Published in: Water Policy and Governance in Canada

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Log in

Abstract

This chapter reviews Canada’s approach to drinking water governance, focusing on the regulations, policies, practices and institutions related to the management and provision of drinking water. This review is significant given Canada’s highly decentralized approach to water governance. We critically evaluate the implications of decentralization for drinking water safety, examining both the uptake of voluntary national guidelines across Canadian jurisdictions, as well as application of day-to-day microbial risk assessment and management practices in various agencies in two provinces (Ontario and BC). Learning from these analyses, we identify a high degree of variability, specifically: (1) variation in the uptake of national Drinking Water Quality Guidelines across provinces and territories; and (2) considerable variability in microbial risk assessment and management practices across provinces and between agencies. We discuss the implications of these findings in light of ongoing harmonization and subsidiarity debates, as well as discussions as to whether compliance should be voluntary or legally binding. Our analysis indicates that the Canadian approach has contributed to data gaps and urban-rural disparities, and reduced capacity for integrated decision-making and effective oversight.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 102.000 Bücher
  • über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Automobil + Motoren
  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
  • Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
  • Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 67.000 Bücher
  • über 390 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Automobil + Motoren
  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
  • Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
  • Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe




 

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 67.000 Bücher
  • über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Versicherung + Risiko




Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now
previous chapter Indigenizing Water Governance in Canada
next chapter Preparing for Success – Drinking Water Safety Plans and Lessons Learned from Alberta: Policy Considerations Contextualized for Small Systems
Footnotes
1
Subsidiarity refers to the delegation of decision-making and policy implementation to the lowest-appropriate scale (Bakker and Cook 2011).
 
2
For the first component of the research, each province and territory drinking water guideline/standard was compared against the 2012 Canadian Drinking Water Quality Guidelines (CDWQG), which are comprised of 94 chemical, physical, microbial, and radiological parameters. These parameters include health considerations (maximum acceptable concentrations (MAC)), aesthetic considerations (aesthetic objectives (AO)), and operational guideline values (operational guidance (OG)) (FPT CDW 2012). The data was compiled into a database, and analyzed for variation across jurisdictions. The second part of this research employed a case study approach examining ‘on-the-ground’ microbial risk assessment and management practices along the source-to-tap spectrum in three case study watersheds from two Canadian provinces (BC and Ontario).
 
3
There are limitations to using E. coli as a surrogate indicator for all pathogens, since strong empirical evidence indicates that E. coli is not always predictive of pathogens occurrence, particularly for viruses and protozoa. I.e. the absence of E. coli is not a guarantee that a water sample is pathogen free (Harwood et al. 2005).
 
4
WSP’s are a risk-based preventative approach to managing drinking water safety from catchment to consumer (source-to-tap). WSP is a comprehensive risk assessment and management plan to identify and prioritize potential threats to water quality at each step in a specific system’s water supply chain (from source to tap) implementing best practices to mitigate threats to drinking water (Bartram et al. 2009; Gelting 2009; Hrudey 2011)
 
5
In the original article (Dunn et al. 2014a) Table 1 lists key industry risk assessment and management tools. The introduction to this paper highlights how risk assessment practices have evolved.
 
6
Whilst there are many “pockets” of data (collected by various federal, provincial, municipal agencies and local interest groups), there is neither an overarching central surveillance or information retrieval system, nor consistency (or guidelines) in collection methods.
 
7
In May 2000, contaminated drinking water supplies in Walkerton, Ontario resulted in 2300 illnesses (almost half the town’s population at that time), 65 hospitalizations, 27 people suffering acute kidney failure and seven deaths (Hrudey and Hrudey 2004; Hamilton et al. 2006; Dupont and Jahan 2012).
 
8
This 2008 report identified British Columbia as having the highest number of BWAs per capita in the country—530 (Eggerston 2008). We conducted a more recent tally of publicly posted BWAs in BC (in November 2013) and found 533 BWAs in effect (Dunn et al. 2014c).
 
Literature
Anderson, G. (2010). Fiscal federalism: A comparative introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bakker, K. (2007). Eau Canada: The future of Canada’s water. Vancouver: UBC Press.
Bakker, K., & Cook, C. (2011). Water governance in Canada: Innovation and fragmentation. International Journal of Water Resources Development, 27, 275–289. CrossRef
Bartram, J., Corrales, L., Davison, A., Deere, D., Drury, D., Gordon, B., et al. (2009). Water safety plan manual: Step-by-step risk management for drinking-water suppliers. Geneva: World Health Organization.
Boyd, D. (2006). The water we drink: An international comparison of drinking water quality standards and guidelines. Vancouver: David Suzuki Foundation.
Boyd, D. (2011). No taps, no toilets: First Nations and the constitutional right to water in Canada. McGill Law Journal, 57, 81–133. CrossRef
Brandes, O. M., & Kriwoken, L. (2006). Changing perspectives-changing paradigms: Taking the “soft path” to water sustainability in the Okanagan Basin. Canadian Water Resources Journal, 31, 75–90. CrossRef
British Columbia Inter-Agency Memorandum of Understanding. (2006). Inter-agency accountability and coordination on drinking water protection. 16 Oct 2006, Version 7.
Brown, J. C., & Purcell, M. (2005). There’s nothing inherent about scale: Political ecology, the local trap, and the politics of development in the Brazilian Amazon. Geoforum, 36, 607–624. CrossRef
Byleveld, P. M., Deere, D., & Davison, A. (2008). Water safety plans: Planning for adverse events and communicating with others. Journal of Water and Health, 6(1), 1–9. CrossRef
Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME). (2004). From source to tap: Guidance on the multi-barrier approach to safe drinking water. Ottawa: Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment Water Quality Task Group and the Federal–Provincial–Territorial Committee on Drinking Water.
Charrois, J. W. A. (2010). Private drinking water supplies: Challenges for public health. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 182, 1061–1064. CrossRef
Christensen, R. (2011). Waterproof III: Canada’s drinking water report card. Vancouver: Ecojustice.
Christensen, R., Goucher, N., & Phare, M. A. (2010). Seeking water justice: Strengthening legal protection for Canada’s drinking water. Vancouver: Ecojustice.
Cohen, A., & Davidson, S. (2011). The watershed approach: Challenges, antecedents, and the transition from technical tool to governance unit. Water Alternatives, 4, 1–14.
Cohen, A., & McCarthy, J. (2014). Reviewing rescaling strengthening the case for environmental considerations. Progress in Human Geography, 39(1), 3–2. CrossRef
Conca, K. (2006). Governing water: Contentious transnational politics and global institution building. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Cook, C., Prystajecky, N., Ngueng Feze, I., Joly, Y., Dunn, G., Kirby, E., et al. (2013). A comparative analysis of microbial drinking water quality testing in three Canadian provinces. Canadian Water Resources Journal, 38, 185–195. CrossRef
Davies, J. M., & Mazumder, A. (2003). Health and environmental policy issues in Canada: The role of watershed management in sustaining clean drinking water quality at surface sources. Journal of Environmental Management, 68, 273–286. CrossRef
De Loë, R., & Kruetzwiser, R. D. (2005). Closing the groundwater implementation gap. Geoforum, 36, 241–256. CrossRef
Dominguez-Chicas, A., & Scrimshaw, M. D. (2010). Hazard and risk assessment for indirect potable reuse schemes: An approach for use in developing water safety plans. Water Research, 44(20), 6115–6123. CrossRef
Dovers, S. (2001). Institutional barriers and opportunities: Processes and arrangements for natural resource management in Australia. Water Science & Technology, 43(9), 215–226.
Dunn, G., & Bakker, K. (2009). Canadian approaches to assessing water security: An inventory of indicators (Policy report). Vancouver: Program on Water Governance.
Dunn, G., Harris, L., Cook, C., & Prystajecky, N. (2014a). A comparative analysis of current microbial water quality risk assessment and management practices in British Columbia and Ontario Canada. Science of the Total Environment, 468–469, 544–552. CrossRef
Dunn, G., Bakker, K., & Harris, L. (2014b). Drinking water quality guidelines across Canadian provinces and territories: Jurisdictional variation in the context of decentralized water governance. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 11, 4634–4651. CrossRef
Dunn, G., Henrich, N., Holmes, B., & Harris, L. (2014c). Microbial water quality communication: Public and practitioner insights from British Columbia, Canada. Journal of Water and Health, 12(3), 584–595. CrossRef
Dupont, D., & Jahan, N. (2012). Defensive spending on tap water substitutes: The value of reducing perceived health risks. Journal of Water and Health, 10(1), 56–68. CrossRef
Egerton, A. J. (1996). Achieving reliable and cost effective water treatment. Water Science and Technology, 33(2), 143–149. CrossRef
Eggerston, L. (2008). Investigative report: 1766 boil-water advisories now in place across Canada. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 178, 1261–1263. CrossRef
Federal-Provincial-Territorial Committee on Drinking Water (FPT CDW). (2012). Guidelines for Canadian drinking water quality. Ottawa: Health Canada.
Fraser Basin Council. (2005). Authorities affecting source water protection in British Columbia. Vancouver: Fraser Basin Council.
Gelting, R. (2009). Water safety plans: CDC’s role. Journal of Environmental Health, 72(4), 44–45.
Grover, R., Copes, R., Mavinic, D., & Teschke, K. (2012). Boil water advisory protocol. Water security guidance document, Part 3 Section 7. Vancouver: Program on Water Governance.
Gupta, J., Akhmouch, A., Cosgrove, W., Hurwitz, Z., Maestu, J., & Ünver, O. (2013). Policymakers’ reflections on water governance issues. Ecology and Society, 18(1), 35. CrossRef
Hamilton, P. D., Gale, P., & Pollard, S. J. T. (2006). A commentary on recent water safety initiatives in the context of water utility risk management. Environment International, 32, 958–966. CrossRef
Harrison, K. (1997). Passing the buck: Federalism and Canadian environmental policy. Vancouver: UBC Press.
Harwood, V. J., Levine, A. D., Scott, T. M., Chivukula, V., Lukasik, J., Farrah, S. R., et al. (2005). Validity of the indicator organism paradigm for pathogen reduction in reclaimed water and public health protection. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 71, 3163–3170. CrossRef
Hill, C., & Harrison, K. (2006). Intergovernmental regulation and municipal drinking water. In G. B. Doern & R. Johnson (Eds.), Rules, rules, rules, rules: Multilevel regulatory governance (pp. 234–258). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Hill, C., Furlong, K., Bakker, K., & Cohen, A. (2008). Harmonization vs. subsidiarity in water governance: A review of water governance and legislation in the Canadian provinces and territories. Canadian Water Resources Journal, 33, 1–18. CrossRef
Hrudey, S. E. (2003). Drinking water risk management principles for a total quality management framework. In S. E. Hrudey (Ed.), Drinking water safety—A total quality management approach (pp. 3–14). Ottawa: Institute for Risk Research, University of Waterloo.
Hrudey, S. E. (2004). Drinking-water risk management principles for a total quality management framework. Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health Part A, 67, 1555–1566. CrossRef
Hrudey, S. E. (2009). Chlorination disinfection by-products, public health risk tradeoffs and me. Water Research, 43(8), 2057–2092. CrossRef
Hrudey, S. E. (2011). Safe drinking water policy for Canada—Turning insight into foresight. Toronto: C.D. Howe Institute Commentary.
Hrudey, S. E., & Hrudey, E. J. (2004). Safe drinking water: Lessons from recent outbreaks in affluent nations. London: IWA Publishing.
Hrudey, S. E., Hrudey, E. J., & Pollard, S. J. T. (2006). Risk management for assuring safe drinking water. Environment International, 32, 948–957. CrossRef
Hunter, P. R., Payment, P., Ashbolt, N., & Bartram, J. (2003). Chapter 3— Assessment of risk. Assessing mi- crobial safety of drinking water: improving approaches and methods (pp. 79–109). Published on behalf of World Health Organization and organization for economic co-operation and development. London: IWA Publishing.
Ison, R. L. (2010). Systems practice: How to act in a climate change world. London: Springer. CrossRef
Ivey, J. L., de Loë, R. C., & Kreutzwiser, R. D. (2006). Planning for source water protection in Ontario. Applied Geography, 26(3), 192–209. CrossRef
Jacobs, K., & Pulwarty, R. (2003). Water resource management: Science, planning and decision-making. In R. G. Lawford, D. D. Fort, H. C. Hartmann, & S. Eden (Eds.), Water: Science, policy, and management—Challenges and opportunities (pp. 117–204). Washington, DC: American Geophysical Union.
Jalba, D. I., Cromar, N. J., Pollard, S. J. T., Charrois, J. W., Bradshaw, R., & Hrudey, S. E. (2010). Safe drinking water: Critical components of effective inter-agency relationships. Environment International, 36, 51–59. CrossRef
Kot, M., Castleden, H., & Gagnon, G. A. (2011). Unintended consequences of regulating drinking water in rural Canadian communities: Examples from Atlantic Canada. Health and Place, 17(5), 1030–1037. CrossRef
McKay, J., & Moeller, A. (2000). Statutory regulation of water quality in modern Australia: Has it been forgotten by the regulators? Water International, 25(4), 595–609. CrossRef
Norman, E. S., Dunn, G., Bakker, K., Allen, D., & Cavalcanti de Albuquerque, R. (2012). Water security assessment: Integrating governance and freshwater indicators. Water Resources Management, 27, 535–551. doi: 10.​1007/​s11269-012-0200-4. CrossRef
Ombudsman, B. C. (2008, June). Fit to drink: Challenges in providing safe drinking water in British Columbia (Special Report No. 32). Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. Victoria: Ombudsman.
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. (2011). Water governance in OECD countries: A multi-level approach. Paris: OECD.
Pahl-Wostl, C. (2009). A conceptual framework for analyzing adaptive capacity and multi-level learning processes in resource governance regimes. Global Environmental Change, 19, 354–365. CrossRef
Pahl-Wostl, C., Lebel, L., Knieper, C., & Nikitina, E. (2012). From applying panaceas to mastering complexity: Toward adaptive water governance in river basins. Environmental Science & Policy, 23, 23–34. CrossRef
Peckenham, J. M., Schmitt, C., McNelly, J., & Tolman, A. (2005). Linking water quality to the watershed: Developing tools for source water protection. Journal of American Water Works Association, 97(9), 62–69.
Plummer, R., de Grosbois, D., de Loë, R., & Velaniskis, J. (2011). Probing the integration of land use and watershed planning in a shifting governance regime. Water Resources Research, 47(9). doi: 10.​1029/​2010WR010213.
Pollard, S. J. T., Strutt, J. E., MacGillivary, B. H., Hamilton, P. D., & Hrudey, S. E. (2004). Risk analysis in the water utility sector: A review of drivers, tools and techniques. Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 82(6), 453–462. CrossRef
Reimann, C., & Banks, D. (2004). Setting action levels for drinking water: Are we protecting our health or our economy (or our backs!)? Science of the Total Environment, 332, 13–21. CrossRef
Rogers, P., & Hall, A. W. (2003). Effective water governance (Global Water Partnership Technical Committee (TEC) Background Papers No. 7). Stockholm: Global Water Partnership.
Saunders, J. O., & Wenig, M. M. (2007). Whose water? Canadian water management and the challenges of jurisdictional fragmentation. In K. Bakker (Ed.), Eau Canada: The future of Canada’s water (pp. 119–141). Vancouver: UBC Press.
Schuster, C., Aramini, J., Ellis, A., Marshall, B., Robertson, W., Medeiross, D. T., & Charronm, D. F. (2005). Infectious disease outbreaks related to drinking water in Canada. 1974–2001. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 96, 254–258.
Swanson, D., & Bhadwal, S. (Eds.). (2009). Creating adaptive policies: A guide for policy-making in an uncertain world. New Delhi: Sage Publications Inc, International Development Research Centre (IDRC).
Swanson, D., Barg, S., Tyler, S., Venema, H., Tomar, S., Bhadwal, S., & Drexhage, J. (2010). Seven tools for creating adaptive policies. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 77, 924–939. CrossRef
US Congressional Budget Office. (1995). Report to Congress on the cost and benefits of federal regulations. US GPO: 4, Washington, DC.
Weibust, I. (2009). Green leviathan: The case for a federal role in environmental policy. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Limited.
Metadata
Title
Canadian Drinking Water Policy: Jurisdictional Variation in the Context of Decentralized Water Governance
Authors
Gemma Dunn
Leila Harris
Karen Bakker
Copyright Year
2017
Book
Water Policy and Governance in Canada

Print ISBN: 978-3-319-42805-5

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-42806-2

Copyright Year: 2017

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42806-2_16

Premium Partner