Education Minister Zach Churchill is downplaying new test results showing thousands of school taps across the province exceeding national guidelines for lead, saying the situation doesn't pose a safety concern.
“Public health said there hasn't been a public health safety concern, so we don't believe there's reason for the public to be alarmed by this,” Churchill said on Thursday, a day after the test results were made public on the department's website.
The findings are laid out in a mash of data contained in eight separate PDF documents for each regional centre of education. The report is more than 350 pages.
Churchill initially pledged to create a centralized online database containing all of the test results. The data report does not contain a tally of total test findings, forcing the public to wade through data marked as either passed or exceeds limits.
More than 5,000 taps exceeded the Health Canada guideline or roughly 20 per cent of all school taps in the province.
More than 1,900 taps in the Halifax Regional Centre for Education did not meet standard.
Churchill defended the format of the report, saying there's no difference between the PDF presentation and the online database he had originally promised.
“There's a database of information, that is provided, he said. “It's going to be managed and updated at the regional level.”
Churchill didn't say when the work to remediate the water would be completed but that touchless water fountains are in the process of being installed in schools. That would address the taps specifically, but the lead could be coming from pipes and the water source itself, he said.
“The regions will deal with the remediations depending on what the problem is,” said Churchill, who couldn't offer an estimate for what the cost would be.
Churchill also said not all taps would be remedied but in the meantime, bottled water is being provided to every school. That would continue until the remediation happens, he said.
Tory education critic Tim Halman said the report and the department's response to the data is unacceptable.
“It appears that the Liberals released these documents with the intent of making the full picture difficult to see,” said Halman. “Parents expect the government to release a full breakdown of how many total taps are contaminated, with regional breakdowns, and more importantly, when they plan on fixing them.”
NDP Leader Gary Burrill agreed, saying the department needs to deal with the problem with urgency.
“This is a finding on a subject that calls for a real sense of focus and urgency, said Burrill. “The people of the province are right to say to the government and to the minister of education, 'All right, this is the fact. What are you going to do now?'”
