Program directory · Health Canada

Water Quality

Department

Health Canada

Program code

BVH08 (H)

Core responsibility

Health Protection and Promotion

In Departmental Plans

2018-19 – 2026-27 · New since an earlier plan

What it does

The objective of the Water Quality Program is to help manage potential risks to the health of people in Canada associated with water quality. Specifically, the Program works with other federal government departments and agencies, provinces and territories, under the authority of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, to establish the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality and Guidelines for Canadian Recreational Water Quality. These Guidelines are endorsed through a federal, provincial and territorial collaborative process, and are used by all federal, provincial and territorial jurisdictions in Canada as the basis for establishing their drinking water quality requirements and to inform their recreational water quality requirements. This Program has no regulatory authority with respect to drinking water or recreational water quality. The Government of Canada's role related to safe drinking water on First Nations reserves is not administered by this Program, but rather by Indigenous Services Canada. Key activities for this Program include the development and dissemination of drinking water and recreational water quality guidelines, guidance documents, emergency screening values (developed upon request), strategies and other tools. The Program also works with standard-setting organizations to develop health-based standards for materials that come into contact with drinking water, and has forged partnerships with international agencies, including the World Health Organization and the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

Source: the department's Program Inventory, via GC InfoBase.

History and lineage

First appears in GC InfoBase's actual spending by program in 2018-19. The data does not record when a program was created; it may be older than its first appearance here, which is limited by the sources (program spending starts in 2010-11, Departmental Plans in 2018-19).

No earlier or later program in the same department has a similar name.

Significant changes in scope and budget

Success criteria

The program's indicators from its department's Departmental Results Framework: the target set in each year's plan, and the result reported the following year. Source: GC InfoBase.

Spending and employees: planned against actual

Spending

Employees (FTEs)

Planned spending, plan by plan

Each row is one year's Departmental Plan and its forecast for the next three fiscal years; read a column down to see how the forecast for one year changed. The last row is what was actually spent. Click an amount for its source. Biggest changes in federal spending plans

Actual spending is from Departmental Results Reports and the Public Accounts, as published in GC InfoBase. FTEs are full-time equivalents.