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For Canada overall, surface water sources provide the vast majority of water used in Canadian municipalities. In 2009, 90.2 % of water in distribution systems came from surface water sources such as lakes and rivers, compared to only 9.8% of water that comes from groundwater sources. Nationally, the ratio of water extracted from surface and groundwater sources has remained remarkably stable over the past decade. As illustrated by Chart 7, most large municipalities obtain almost all of their water from surface water sources, while small municipalities rely more heavily on groundwater sources.
Significant regional variations in the percent of water obtained from surface versus groundwater sources are also observed. All responding municipalities in Prince Edward Island, which has few surface rivers and lakes, indicated that they obtained their drinking water from groundwater sources. New Brunswick and the territories also rely on groundwater for a significant proportion of their drinking water.
