N.W.T. gov't slow to act on school lead situation, independent investigation finds

The N.W.T. government was slow to act when it detected lead in school drinking water because two of its departments failed to understand the health implications of the situation, an independent investigation has found. 

"It is fair to say that everyone involved in the [testing] initiative held an honest belief that the situation was 'under control' — until it became apparent that it wasn't," reads the report, released publicly Monday afternoon during a territorial news conference. A pair of water quality assessment reports by the firm Stantec Consulting Ltd. were also released.  

Students, staff and parents at École William McDonald Middle School and Range Lake North School in Yellowknife found out on May 27 that there had been elevated levels of lead found in the drinking water at a single water fountain in each school.  

About a month later, the public school board in Yellowknife said further testing confirmed high levels of lead at both schools, though at William McDonald the tests yielded more results that were high, and with higher lead concentrations. The N.W.T. government said further investigation would be needed to understand why the levels at William McDonald were high, while precautionary flushing could be used to deal with the situation at Range Lake.

During a media briefing Monday afternoon, Jamie Fulford, the deputy minister for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, said the organizations involved in the testing and response have been focused on strengthening their communication, collaboration and planning.

"The past few weeks have been challenging," he said. "We are committed to getting this right, for our students, our educators and the communities we serve."

In a statement Monday afternoon, Education Minister Caitlin Cleveland said the investigation confirmed "warning signs were missed, key test results weren't escalated quickly enough and communication between departments and with the public was inconsistent."

"These are serious systemic failures that affected both safety and trust. That is not acceptable. I take full responsibility for ensuring we fix it," she wrote.

She said changes are underway for how the territory does things. That includes developing a territory-wide testing program for water in schools, with public reporting.

Cathy Maniego, deputy minister of Infrastructure, said during Monday's briefing that her department will also be looking at remediation options at William McDonald once the government identifies the source of the lead.

"It'll either be, in the extreme, a complete replacement of the plumbing and fixtures — or, hopefully, something less than that, which could be a partial replacement or could be a point-of-use filter," she said.

Cayley Thomas, an alternative dispute resolution lawyer with the firm Thomas ADR who authored the report, said concerns about a delay in when those test results were received and then communicated, as well as communication between the education department and the office of the chief public health officer, ultimately led to her investigation. 

Her report provides a timeline for what happened leading up to May 27, identifies procedural gaps and makes recommendations. She said she was specifically asked not to blame any person for what happened. 

The timeline of events ultimately begins when lead was detected in the drinking water at schools in the Yukon. After that, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE) received approval to do a single sample test at N.W.T. schools that would be based on a 2018 testing program that hadn't gone ahead.