Canada has nearly universal and generally good quality access to water, but a lack of clean drinking water in many First Nations communities remains a problem. Water use in Canada is high compared to Europe, since water tariffs are low and 44% of users are not metered.
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 supply in Canada is nearly universal. Concerning sanitation, nearly 75% of Canadians are serviced by municipal sewer systems. The remaining 25 percent of the Canadian population is served by septic disposal systems.Environment Canada
Service quality
Water supply Canada is surrounded on three sides by the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic oceans and has over 243,000 km of coastline. This, combined with the characteristics of Canada's topography and climate, results in abundant freshwater resources.
Canadian drinking water supplies in cities 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.CWWA In an average year, some 500 boil water advisories normally of 3 to 4 day duration, 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, a series of events that accompanied the contamination of the water supply of Walkerton, Ontario, by E. coli bacteria in 2000. In 2001 a similar outbreak in North Battleford, Saskatchewan caused by the protozoan Cryptosporidium affected at least 5,800 people.
Water supply on First Nations reserves
Canadian drinking water supplies on First Nations land is substandard in many locations and has been for many years.
Since 1977, successive federal governments failed to resolve the water and sanitation infrastructure problems on First Nations reserves in Canada, and the water on many reserves was "contaminated, hard to access, or at risk due to faulty treatment systems", according to a June 2016 Human Rights Watch (HRW) report. The report noted that many of the DWAs had been in effect "for years, sometimes for decades". According to the Human Rights Watch, First Nations reserves in Canada were found to have water contaminations that included coliform, E. coli, Trihalomethane, and uranium, which may cause gastrointestinal diseases or increased risks for cancer.
According to a 2001 Indian and Northern Affairs/Ontario First Nations Technical Services Corporation co-funded Ontario Clean Water Agency survey of water systems on Indian reserves in Ontario, 62 communities had severe problems affecting the communities' water systems."Concerns over water on reserve ignored for years", CTV News, October 27, 2005. In 2005, 800 members of the Kashechewan First Nation, which had been on a long-term Drinking Water Advisories (DWA)s since 2003, were evacuated after E. coli bacteria were discovered in their water supply system. This represented about 60% of the community's 1,900 members.globeandmail.com On November 5, 2005, the federal government reported that the water plant repairs improved water quality to safe provincial standards.Progress on Kashechewan Action Plan , Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.]
In 2005, Phil Fontaine, then-chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said that over 100 aboriginal communities in Canada were living under permanent long-term boil-water advisories.
The First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) in British Columbia monitors 285 community water systems in 193 First Nations in British Columbia. In 2011, 11 long term advisories that had lasted longer than 12 months, were lifted. In 2016 and in 2017, 7 long term advisories were lifted. By January 31, 2019, there were 10 DWAs in effect across 8 First Nation communities in British Columbia.
By 2015, there were 105 DWAs in effect in First Nations communities. An arbitrary cap from 1996 though 2015—limited the annual increase on the budget of the federal department that funds and regulates water and sanitation infrastructure on reserves—to 2% "regardless of population growth, inflation, or need." The funding constraints prevented necessary improvements "water supplied to many First Nations communities on lands known as reserves is contaminated, hard to access, or at risk due to faulty treatment systems". The report noted that many of the DWAs had been in effect "for years, sometimes for decades".
Following the 2015 Canadian federal election additional funds were allocated to remove the long-term drinking water advisories (DWA)s over the next five years.
On March 22, 2018, World Water Day, at the launch of the International Decade for Action on Water for Sustainable Development, 13-year-old Canadian water protector Autumn Peltier, Wikwemikong First Nation, raised concerns about access to drinking water on Canadian reserves at the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters. She said, "No child should grow up not knowing what clean water is, or never knowing what running water is." According to a March 22, 2018 CTV News report, First Nations communities have differing needs in terms of providing safe water—Cat Lake First Nation in Ontario "needs a new water treatment system, the Miawpukek First Nation in Newfoundland requires equipment repairs, and the White Bear First Nation in Saskatchewan needs an entirely new treatment plant". "Completion of a new water treatment system can take 3 to 4 years on average to complete."
By December 31, 2018, 78 of these advisories had been lifted, "36 added and one was deactivated". He added that "work is underway to end the remaining 62 long-term advisories and prevent further short-term advisories from becoming long-term". According to the official site that tracks progress on the provision of safe drinking water on reserves, one more long-term boil water advisory was removed by February 24. The federal budgets allocated $1.8 billion over five years in 2016, an additional $49.1 million over three years in 2017, and an additional $172.6 million in 2018, towards improving access to safe drinking water.
From November 2015 through January 19, 2024, 144 long-term drinking water advisories (DWA)s were lifted. 28 are still in effect in 26 communities.
Sanitation
In many cities and communities across Canada, treatment of waste water is either insufficient or non-existent. Although some communities have advanced waste water 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 waste water 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 waste water treatment, storm water can cause the sewer system to overflow, allowing raw sewage to spill directly into rivers, lakes, and oceans.
In 1999, 97% of the Canadian population on sewers received some form of waste water treatment. The remaining 3% of Canadians served by sewage collection systems were not connected to waste water treatment facilities in 1999 and discharged their untreated sewage directly into receiving water bodies.
Link to water resources
While Canada has significant fresh water reserves (9% of the world's renewable freshwater), this water is not always available where needed. With 85% of the population living along the southern border with the United States and most of the country's fresh water draining to the north it is not surprising that those drainage basins with higher freshwater use-to-availability ratios are also located in southern Canada.
The drainage area of greatest concern is the South Saskatchewan, Missouri and Assiniboine-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 is taken from lac Saint-Louis, lac des Deux-Montagnes, Rivière des Prairies 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. The river receives untreated liquid waste from metropolitan Montreal and the newly developed suburbs by way of over 150 discharge outlets. Whenever there is significant rainfall on the island of Montreal, household sewage is mixed with the city street rainwater and discharged untreated into the river. The Rivière des Prairies used to receive massive discharges of untreated waste water from the city, turning it into essentially an open sewer; however, ecological intervention and modern waste water treatment mostly reversed the damage and the river is often considered clean by the RSMA(Réseau de suivi du milieu aquatique), 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.City of Montreal:Measuring water consumption
Ottawa Most of Ottawa's drinking water is drawn from the Ottawa River and treated at the city's two water purification plants at Britannia and Lemieux Island. After treatment, Ottawa's clean water supply is then pressurized and distributed naturally using the flow of the Ottawa River. This process occurs at the Fleet Street Pumping Station, Ottawa's oldest water treatment facility and the last remaining example of gravity-based water pumping in Canada. The city's wastewater is discharged after treatment at the Robert O. Pickard Environmental Centre - the city's only wastewater treatment plant located in the East End near Rockcliffe Airport. Most houses are metered and an average resident of Ottawa uses approximately 250 liters of water a day.City of Ottawa: Water, FAQs The 23,000 m2 Britannia Water Treatment Plant, which is situated on 18.7 hectares of city property adjacent to the Britannia Yacht Club, and the Britannia Conservation area centered on the NCC's Mud Lake was commissioned and constructed between 1956 and 1959. It treats an average of about 200 megalitres of water a day. The Britannia Water Treatment Plant was included amongst other architecturally interesting and historically significant buildings in Doors Open Ottawa, held June 2 and 3, 2012.Doors Open Ottawa
Toronto Toronto obtains all its drinking water from Lake Ontario. It is then treated in four treatment plants, three along the shore of the lake and one on Centre Island. Waste water is treated in four treatment plants. Average household use was 315 cubic meters/year in 2006. The average annual water and waste water 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 by 2015.
Metro Vancouver