A shocking investigation in Ontario recently revealed that 2,400 schools and daycare centres exceeded the normal amounts of lead in drinking water.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is calling on Doug Ford to take immediate action.
“Will the Premier reverse his cuts and immediately fund the necessary school repairs to get the led out of our children’s water.”
Horwath says “the repair backlog was $15.9-billion under the Liberals and now it stands at $16.3-billion. Hardly surprising since one of the first things this Premier did in office was cut $100 million from school repair budgets.”
Many institutions across northwestern Ontario were well above the provincial and national levels.
Ontario’s Minister of Education Stephen Lecce says his government is allocating $13-billion over the next decade to improve schools in every region of the province.
He adds they are continuing a $1.4-billion allocation to maintain their schools.
In the end, Lecce put the blame on the previous Liberal government saying the PC’s inherited the problem.
Many schools across the region were above the maximum level of lead in drinking water.
Health Canada recommends 5 parts per billion as the maximum acceptable limit for lead concentration in drinking water.
The provincial recommendation is 10 ppb.
According to a Ministry of Environment report, nearly a third of all Ontario schools and daycare centres had at least one test result that was above 5 parts per billion between April 2016 and March 2018.
The former Queen Elizabeth High School in Sioux Lookout was near the top of the list at 85.7% above the threshold.
The Sioux Lookout Access Centre, formerly Wellington Public School, was at 70%.
Ear Falls Public School is listed as 50% above the recommended threshold.
The Ignace school is 25.2% over, St. Joseph’s Catholic School in Dryden 25% above suggested levels, while Dryden High School came in at 19.2%.
