National Guidelines and Standards Office

The National Guidelines and Standards Office (NGSO) is part of Environment Canada. We provide nationally approved, science-based measures of environmental quality including guidelines, standards, and objectives. The primary focus of the group is developing national guidelines for water, sediment, and soil quality and aquatic tissue residues. Guidelines are recommended numerical or narrative limits for a variety of substances and environmental quality characteristics (such as dissolved oxygen or pH), which, if exceeded, may impair the health of Canadian ecosystems. Guidelines are mandated federally under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) and nationally under various federal-provincial agreements (Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment, Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement).

In addition, the NGSO leads and supports various ecosystem management initiatives (with a focus on consultative, community-based, right-to-know approaches) cooperatively with the CCME, Environment Canada Regions and other federal departments. The NGSO's thrust is to develop and promote effective implementation of science-based guidelines, objectives and indicators to achieve ecosystem health and sustainable development.

Mission Statement

The National Guidelines and Standards Office provides the Canadian public, industry, and government with nationally consistent, science-based goals for environmental quality. We do this by assessing and integrating scientific information on environmental stressors to develop Canadian Environmental Quality Guidelines and other scientific advice and tools intended to sustain, protect, and enhance the major beneficial uses of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems in Canada.