By Rhythm Sachdeva
Opposition parties are demanding the Ontario government immediately take action to address “shocking” lead levels in school and daycare drinking water.
Hours after the Investigative Journalism Bureau (IJB) published a report exposing widespread provincial lead test failures in schools and daycares on Thursday, NDP environment critic Sandy Shaw voiced her outrage at Queen’s Park.
“The very fact that this government knows that our children could be exposed to lead [and] they continue to underfund infrastructure and upgrades is completely shameful,” Shaw told Queen’s Park. “We should be here over the course of this summer and into the fall … to talk about the findings of this report and to come up with plans to address these shocking findings.”
The IJB investigation found more than 2,300 schools across Ontario had lead level test results that exceeded federal safety guidelines in the past four years. The results indicate as many as 800,000 students could have been impacted.
The story also includes a searchable database, which enables the public to search lead test results for Ontario schools and daycares between 2019 and 2023.
Nearly half of Ontario’s public schools have recorded at least one drinking water test exceeding the federal lead safety guideline of five parts per billion (ppb).
Meanwhile, Ontario’s safety guideline for lead in drinking water remains at 10 ppb – double the federal guideline that was set five years ago to better protect public health amid growing concerns about the impacts of lead.
Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles says, “We have governments that have refused to keep up with the infrastructure repair backlog that exists out there, and for decades, continued to underfund our education system and our infrastructure, and this is the situation we’re in today.”
NDP MPPs Chandra Pasma and Joel Harden slammed the Conservative government for inaction on high lead levels in Ottawa school drinking water in a statement released Tuesday.
“We have the resources to address it. Yet, instead of adopting the federal safety guidelines for lead and supporting school boards in eliminating lead from drinking water, the Ford government is hiding its head in the sand,” the statement read.
CTV News Ottawa: Dangerous levels of lead showing up in Ontario school and daycare drinking water
CBC Listen | All in a day with Alan Neal: Ottawa schools stand out for having higher lead levels than elsewhere in Ontario – Guest Rob Cribb
Hamilton Spectator | High lead levels found in water at 40-plus Hamilton schools
Hamilton school board says it takes reports showing lead in water seriously
In an emailed statement to the IJB, Ontario’s Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks did not respond to questions about the province’s decision not to adopt the federal safety guidelines for lead.
“Our comprehensive legislation and strong monitoring, reporting and enforcement help ensure our drinking water is held to Ontario’s high safety standards,” reads a statement.
“Furthermore, Ontario has one of the most stringent testing regimes for lead in drinking water in the entire country…. Ontario will continue to work with our partners through our comprehensive framework to protect Ontario’s drinking water from source to tap.”
The IJB analysis found nearly four percent of tests in child-care centres showed lead levels above the federal guideline. Private schools had six percent of tests exceeding the limit.
“It’s very concerning, perhaps not surprising, given the state of school repair in the province,” John Fraser, provincial Liberal Critic for children’s health, said in an interview.
The IJB investigation acts as a reminder that public health in Canada lacks coordination between provinces and the federal government, Fraser said.
Parents need to “demand change,” he said. “Talk to the administrators if there’s a concern, [and] make sure that [there is] bottled water or there are measures being taken.”
Provincial Liberal environment critic Mary-Margaret McMahon called the lead level test results reported by the IJB “deplorable.”
“The government needs to look at the results immediately and take action,” she said in an interview, calling for increased testing and more regular pipe changes. “Kids are our future. We should be investing in them.”
Pasma, the NDP’s education critic, called Ontario’s more permissive lead safety standard “suspicious.”
“The federal guidelines are based on scientific evidence, they’re not just pulled out of the air, ” she said. “We should be following the stricter guidelines, not the more lax one. In the case of the Ontario government, it’s hard not to think that what they’re trying to avoid is the cost of actually remedying it.”
Researchers say there is actually no safe level of lead exposure. Because lead is a developmental neurotoxin, children are the most vulnerable to potential long-term consequences. Exposure has been associated with a range of cognitive challenges, ranging from loss of IQ to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and increased antisocial behaviour.
Global lead exposure cost children 765 million IQ points in 2019, a World Bank study from 2023 found. And it contributed to more than 5.5 million adult cardiovascular deaths that same year, making up 30 per cent of all such deaths globally.
In an interview, the NDP’s Shaw said her party will be pushing the government to take action when Queen’s Park sits again in the fall.
“It’s a crisis,” she said. “Parents, when they understand this, will be completely horrified to know that this is happening in their kids’ schools.”