The site visits usually result in a list of mandatory and optional changes to be made to the laboratory to improve quality. The Quebec Government has its own laboratory accreditation program for laboratories submitting data to it and there are various American companies offering a form of Accreditation. In the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Environment Canada's Environmental Quality Laboratory is the only laboratory that is accredited to do environmental work. The cost of laboratory Accreditation depends on the numbers of parameters a laboratory routinely does. Reasons for using Accredited Laboratories Accreditation assures that the laboratory uses proper analytical procedures, quality control and that the laboratory has a satisfactory level of performance in analyzing specifies chemical parameters.
Accreditation ensures that data from different laboratories are of known quality and comparable.
Accreditation ensures that the laboratory used proper quality control procedures when performing analytical tests. Without Accreditation, laboratory tests are not defensible and would not stand up against any scrutiny in court. If the Department does not use Accredited laboratories, other governments and agencies will have grounds to question our chemical data. Accreditation by an outside recognized agency is the only way to ensure that analytical services are of sufficient quality. Most other provinces in Canada are moving towards using only accredited laboratories.