Canadian Environmental Quality Guidelines (CEQG)

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Canadian Environmental Quality Guidelines are nationally approved, science-based indicators of environmental quality. They are recommended numerical or narrative limits for a variety of substances and environmental quality parameters, 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).

As recognized instruments for action on toxics, environmental quality guidelines support regulatory and non-regulatory efforts on toxic substances management at the regional, national, and international level. They provide nationally endorsed, science-based benchmarks for assessing the risk of priority substances to aquatic and terrestrial organisms; targets towards which environmental control measures / pollution prevention efforts can be directed; and performance indicators to help evaluate, track and/or improve upon the effectiveness of existing or proposed management measures. Guidelines also serve as the scientific foundation for Canada-Wide Standards under the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment Environmental Harmonization Accord.