Municipal Wastewater Effluent Consultation Documents

Consultation documents on the Draft Canada-wide Strategy
for Municipal Wastewater Effluent posted

At its meeting September 12, 2007, the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment expressed their support for the Canada-wide Strategy for Managing Municipal Wastewater Effluent developing under its direction. Environment Ministers directed officials to consult with municipalities, Aboriginal communities, system operators, environmental organizations and other interested parties on the strategy. The draft strategy is intended to establish performance standards so Canada's water bodies are protected, to harmonize regulatory requirements across the country, and to propose sustainable funding mechanisms and timelines for its implementation.

Stakeholders have until January 31, 2008 to provide written comment to the Development Committee. Once feedback has been received from stakeholders, the Development Committee will consider this advice and complete the development of the strategy for endorsement by the Council of Ministers.

The following new information is included in the 2007 draft of the Canada-wide Strategy:

Detailed Economic Plan (Technical Supplement 1);
Environmental Risk Management Model Framework and Guidance document (Technical Supplement 2);
Determination of level of risk for implementation timelines updated to include elements for harmonization with proposed federal regulation and to consider impact of combined sewer overflows (Part 9, Tech. Supp. 2);
Environmental Risk Assessment Standard Method and Contracting Provisions (Technical Supplement 3 of Strategy);
Model Sewer Use Bylaw (Technical Supplement 4 of Strategy).

Consultation materials and supporting documentation can be found on the CCME website. A summary of comments from last year's consultation is also posted. The CCME letter of transmittal includes instructions for comments and can be viewed here.

Please direct questions and comments regarding this initiative to your B.C. representative by email to Municipal.Wastewater@gov.bc.ca or to the CCME secretariat.

General information on this initiative is available here (176 KB / 9 pages).

UPDATE Workshop with Environment Canada for B.C. Stakeholders

To assist B.C. stakeholders in their understanding of both the draft Canada-wide Strategy and Environment Canada's plans for a federal regulation for wastewater, a workshop was held in Vancouver on December 12, 2007. Ministry of Environment invited Environment Canada to present the framework for their proposed regulation at this workshop. The presentations from the workshop are posted here:

B.C. MoE (371 KB / 27 pages)

Env. Can. (330 KB / 28 pages)

Environment Canada has released a Proposed Regulatory Framework for Wastewater that indicates how they intend to implement the Canada-wide Strategy. The Framework will be available at
http://www.ec.gc.ca/etad/default.asp?lang=En&n=D5CE3A46-0.

Environment Canada's framework document has been included here (143 KB / 26 pages) for convenience. Environment Canada is planning to hold federal consultation sessions on November 13, 2007 in Ottawa, on January 8, 2008 in Halifax and on January 15, 2008 in Calgary.

December 2007