LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO

Thursday 13 December 2007 Jeudi 13 décembre 2007

The problem is that most of the schools in Barrhaven are brand new. They were built after 1990 and they are not exposed to lead piping, nor are they exposed to elevated levels of lead in the water. Now Barrhaven schools are forced to shut down fountains because the school board does not have enough custodians to flush the fountains, even though they really don’t need to be flushed at all.

Will the minister commit to me today to relaxing the bureaucratic standards so that water fountains in my constituency will flow?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: If what the member opposite is asking is whether we will lower standards and expose kids to risk, the answer is no, we will not do that.

What we will do is provide water for those kids. The Ministry of Education has been providing bottled water. The testing standards have gone up. The fact is that there’s a new regime of testing that is in place in terms of lead in the water. So we are following that regime. The school boards are going through that testing and we have been providing bottled water to the students who need it in those schools.

Ms. Lisa MacLeod: “A new regime” is right. I’m going to read something from the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board chair, who said, “This is a very bureaucratic process and position.”

The biggest problem in this, other than that we have brand new schools in Barrhaven that are not exposed to lead, is that the schools and people don’t need made-in-Toronto regulations for South Nepean. This blanket approach has parents in Ottawa concerned that there is lead in water where there is not.

Let me read this from the CBC: “Megan McNeill-McKinnell said it made parents wonder what was wrong with the water.... ‘So you start to think about what has been happening, how long it has been going on for and how come we didn’t get information about it.’” It’s misinformation created by her ministry.

Again, the schools in Barrhaven are brand new. They are not exposed to lead or lead piping. Will they relax these Liberal flushing guidelines for lead because there is no lead piping? Will she let the kids in Barrhaven drink the water in their schools?

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Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: I think the member opposite should talk to her environment critic, who is not looking too comfortable at this moment. The fact is, I am the Minister of Education for the whole province of Ontario; I am not the Minister of Education for Toronto. The standards that are in place in Toronto have to be in place in Ottawa, in Kapuskasing, in Timmins and across the whole province. Every child in this province deserves to have safe drinking water, and we’re going to ensure that that’s the case.