Health Canada Documents for Public Review & Comment
When Health Canada has intent to update guidelines related to drinking water, a technical guideline document is developed to propose these changes. The document is first reviewed by external experts before seeking comments from the public during a limited consultation period.
Below you can access open and closed consultations. Information to submit comments is located within each link on Health Canada’s website.
Visit our online library’s main webpage to find more resources on topics related to drinking water.
Open Consultations
- Draft guidance on sampling and mitigation measures for controlling corrosion (all comments must be received before February 15, 2023)
- Consultation: Draft technical document guidelines for Canadian drinking water quality – Antimony (all comments must be received before March 8, 2023)
- Draft objective for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in Canadian drinking water (all comments must be received before April 12, 2023)
Recently Closed Consultations
- Share your ideas: Consultation on amendments to the Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations
- Consultation: Guidelines for Canadian recreational water quality: Microbiological pathogens and biological hazards
Past Consultations
- Consultation: Proposed Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality for Malathion
- Consultation: Guidelines for Canadian Recreational Water Quality – Understanding and Managing Risks in Recreational Waters
- Consultation: Guidelines for Canadian Recreational Water Quality: Indicators of Fecal Contamination
- Consultation: Proposed guidelines for Canadian drinking water quality for dimethoate and omethoate
- 4-Chloro-2-methylphenoxyacetic Acid (MCPA) in Drinking Water: Guideline Technical Document for Public Consultation
- Consultation: Guidelines for recreational water quality: Physical, aesthetic and chemical characteristics
- Consultation: Proposed guideline for Bromoxynil in drinking water
- Consultation: Cyanobacteria and their Toxins in Recreational Water – Guideline Technical Document
- Proposed guideline technical document for dicamba in drinking water
- Boron in Drinking Water: Guideline Technical Document for Public Consultation
- Guidance on Monitoring the Biological Stability of Drinking Water in Distribution Systems
- Proposed guideline for Canadian drinking water quality for metribuzin
- Withdrawal of Select Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality
- Consultation – Cadmium in Drinking Water
- Consultation – Guidance on Natural Organic Matter in Drinking Water
- Consultation – Guidance on the use of Enterococci bacteria as indicators in Canadian drinking water supplies
- Consultation on 1,4-dioxane in drinking water
- Consultation on aluminum in drinking water
- Consultation on Barium in drinking water
- Consultation on Chloramines in drinking water
- Consultation on copper in drinking water
- Consultation on enteric viruses in drinking water
- Consultation on Escherichia coli (E. coli) in Drinking Water
- Consultation on guidance on the use of quantitative microbial risk assessment in drinking water
- Consultation on strontium in drinking water
- Consultation on the review of guideline technical document – Total coliforms in drinking water
- Consultation on uranium in drinking water
- Consultation on uranium in drinking water
View these similar posts on the WCWC online library for more information.
Proposed Amendments to the Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations
Health Canada Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality
Federal Drinking Water Systems
Regulatory Resources for Ontario Systems
Disponible en français.
Read MoreWater Talk Fact Sheet Series
The Water Talk fact sheet series provides several levels of information on various water quality issues. While some of the information is technical in nature, each sheet provides a general overview of the issue that may go beyond drinking water, and is written in straightforward language that is easy to understand (Health Canada, 2022).
If you have concerns about your drinking water or health, contact your public drinking water authority or public health authority for more information.
Water Talk Series
- Aluminum in drinking water
- Chloramines in drinking water
- Barium in drinking water
- Copper in drinking water
- Manganese in drinking water
- Be well aware – Information for private well owners
- Drinking water quality in Canada
- Perfluoroalkylated substances in drinking water
- Enteric protozoa (Giardia and Cryptosporidium) in drinking water
- Enteric viruses in drinking water
- Lead in drinking water
- Strontium in drinking water
- Uranium in drinking water
- 1,4-Dioxane in drinking water
View these similar posts on the WCWC online library for more information.
Health Canada Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality
Health Canada Guidance Documents
Health Canada Documents for Public Review & Comment
Federal Drinking Water Systems
Disponible en français.
Read MoreHealth Canada Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality
Guidelines are established based on current, published scientific research related to health effects, aesthetic effects, and operational considerations. Guidelines (maximum acceptable concentrations or treatment goals) are based on a comprehensive review of the known health effects associated with each contaminant, on exposure levels and on the availability of treatment and analytical technologies. Aesthetic objectives (e.g., for taste or odour) are provided when they play a role in determining whether consumers will consider the water drinkable. Operational guidance values are provided when a substance may interfere with or impair a treatment process or technology (e.g., turbidity interfering with chlorination or UV disinfection) or adversely affect drinking water infrastructure (e.g., corrosion of pipes) (Health Canada, 2022).
Health Canada publishes guidelines and other information on the website Drinking water quality in Canada.
Guidelines
Technical Documents
Microbiological Parameters
Bacteriological Quality
- Enterococci
- Escherichia coli
- Guidance on the Use of Heterotrophic Plate Counts in Canadian Drinking Water Supplies
- Total Coliforms
Chemical/Physical Parameters
- Aluminum
- Ammonia
- Antimony
- Arsenic
- Asbestos
- Atrazine
- Barium
- Benzene
- Benzo[a]pyrene
- Boron
- Bromate
- Bromoxynil
- Cadmium
- Calcium
- Carbon tetrachloride
- Chloramines
- Chloride
- Chlorine
- Chlorite and chlorate
- Chlorophenols
- Chlorpyrifos
- Chromium
- Colour
- Copper
- Cyanide
- Cyanobacterial toxins
- Dicamba
- Dichlorobenzenes
- Dichloroethane, 1,2
- Dichloroethylene,1,1
- Dichloromethane
- Dichlorophenol,2,4- (see Chlorophenols)
- Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, 2,4
- Dimethoate and Omethoate
- Dioxane-1,4
- Diquat
- Ethylbenzene (see Toluene, ethylbenzene and the xylenes)
- Fluoride
- Formaldehyde
- Glyphosate
- Haloacetic acids
- Hardness
- Iron
- Lead
- Magnesium
- Malathion
- Manganese
- MCPA – (2-Methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic Acid)
- Mercury
- Methyl Tertiary-Butyl Ether (MTBE)
- Metribuzine
- Microcystin-LR (see Cyanobacterial toxins)
- N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA)
- Nitrate/nitrite
- Nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA)
- Odour
- Pentachlorophenol (see Chlorophenols)
- Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA)
- Perfluorooctane Sulfonate (PFOS)
- pH
- Selenium
- Silver
- Sodium
- Strontium
- Sulphate
- Sulphide
- Taste
- Tetrachloroethylene
- Tetrachlorophenol,2,3,4,6- (see Chlorophenols)
- Toluene (see Toluene, ethylbenzene and the xylenes)
- Toluene, ethylbenzene and the xylenes
- Total dissolved solids
- Trichloroethylene
- Trichlorophenol,2,4,6- (see Chlorophenols)
- Trihalomethanes
- Turbidity
- Uranium
- Vinyl chloride
- Xylenes (see Toluene, ethylbenzene and the xylenes)
- Zinc
Screening Values
- diazinon
- diuron
- Drinking water screening value for Iodide – Technical Summary
- Hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX)
- Perchlorate
- Perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA)
- Sulfolane
Radiological Parameters
View these similar posts on the WCWC online library for more information.
Health Canada Documents for Public Review & Comment
Health Canada Guidance Documents
Federal Drinking Water Systems
Disponible en français.
Read MoreHealth Canada Guidance Documents
Health Canada works with the provinces, territories and federal agencies to establish the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality. Over the years, new methodologies and approaches have led Health Canada, in collaboration with the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Committee on Drinking Water, to develop a new type of document, guidance documents, to provide advice and guidance on issues related to drinking water quality for parameters that do not require a formal Guideline for Canadian Drinking Water Quality.
Guidance documents are developed to provide operational or management guidance related to specific drinking water-related issues (e.g., boil water advisories), to make health risk assessment information available when a guideline is not deemed necessary (Health Canada, 2020).
Guidance Documents
- Guidance on waterborne pathogens in drinking water
- Guidance on the Temperature Aspects of Drinking Water
- Guidance Document: Overview of the Microbiological Aspects of Drinking Water Quality
- Guidance on Natural Organic Matter in Drinking Water
- Guidance on the Use of Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment in Drinking Water
- Guidance on Controlling Corrosion in Drinking Water Distribution Systems
- Guidance on Chloral Hydrate in Drinking Water
- Guidance on Monitoring the Biological Stability of Drinking Water in Distribution Systems
- Guidance for Issuing and Rescinding Boil Water Advisories in Canadian Drinking Water Supplies
- Guidance for Issuing and Rescinding Drinking Water Avoidance Advisories in Emergency Situations
- Guidance on Potassium from Water Softeners
View these similar posts on the WCWC online library for more information.
Health Canada Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality
Health Canada Documents for Public Review & Comment
Federal Drinking Water Systems
Disponible en français.
Read More