Public Health Bureau

The Public Health Bureau is comprised of two programs that are responsible for protecting the health of people travelling within Canada and for ensuring safe drinking water for federal employees.

The Travelling Public Program, through a network of Environmental Health Officers across Canada, works to reduce public health risks to the travelling public by:

• Carrying out public health inspections to ensure safe food, potable water and sanitary conditions on passenger conveyances and their ancillary services (e.g. ferries, cruise ships and trains);
• Monitoring and responding to gastrointestinal disease outbreaks on passenger conveyances; and
• Providing general sanitation advice and consultation to operators of passenger conveyances and their ancillary services.

The Public Health Bureau also issues deratification exemption certificates to international cargo vessels for preventing the introduction of communicable diseases in Canada.

The Bureau publishes inspection guidelines and administrative procedures for all of its inspection programs.

The Federal Drinking Water Compliance Program assists federal departments in demonstrating due diligence in protecting human health from risks related to drinking water. The program is responsible for:

• Disseminating information to assist departments to remain current with drinking water management best practices;
• Developing partnerships and alliances with and among federal departments, agencies and non government organizations to foster sharing of best practices in the management of drinking water systems; and
• Developing tools for federal departments to facilitate the implementation of appropriate drinking water management practices.