Kami Kandola, health expert and mom, on the William Mac tests

The NWT’s chief public health officer also has a kid who attended William McDonald School. How does she feel about elevated lead levels in the school water?

Dr Kami Kandola is the territory’s leading voice on matters of public health and was first in line to give interviews this week as test results confirmed high amounts of lead in one Yellowknife school’s drinking water.

But Dr Kandola has more than a professional interest in those results. She is also the mother of a student who recently attended William McDonald School.

On Thursday, she discussed the results with Cabin Radio – and how she interprets those results, both as a public health professional and a parent.

Below, you can read a partial transcript of the conversation.

For more about the test results, read our full coverage of Wednesday’s announcement.

If you are concerned about the effect of elevated lead levels on you or your family, you can complete a form to request assistance from Yellowknife primary care staff. Select the option “YK Primary Care Regarding Public Health Order’” when submitting the form.

This interview was broadcast on June 26, 2025. The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Ollie Williams: How would you characterize the level of concern these results give you?

Dr Kami Kandola: There’s two types of testing. There’s a random screening test and then a deeper dive where you test two scenarios: one, after the water has been sitting overnight for at least eight hours and you test in the morning, and two, you flush for five minutes then test again 30 minutes later.

The second one would represent typical usage. When we look at the five drinking fountains and that second type of testing, the levels of lead range from 1.85 up to 6.25 micrograms per litre. The maximum allowable concentration for Canada is five. So you would exceed that amount.

When we look at those who are at highest risk, typically it’s going to be infants, children under six and unborn babies. They can absorb up to 40 percent of lead from drinking water whereas, if you look at adults, it is only 10 percent.

We are recommending anyone exposed go to the NTHSSA website and click on the callback form to get assessed and get a blood lead level. If this was in an elementary school, we would get a different blood lead level reading in those who absorbed a lot more lead.

William McDonald was home to some junior kindergarten and kindergarten students a few years ago when JH Sissons was knocked down and rebuilt. I don’t think we have any historic lead tests to know how long this has been a problem. How concerned should those parents be, given their kids would have been quite young at the time?

In 1975, the plumbing code no longer allowed lead pipes to be used. 1986 was when they also had regulations against using lead solder. We know that William Mac was constructed in September 1982, after when lead pipes were banned but before the lead solder was banned.

We have biomonitoring information from the YK Hemp study, 2017 to 2024, which looked at 2,000 people and included close to 400 children. Those results didn’t signal a cluster around William Mac. There was nothing flagged to signal a cluster of elevated lead levels in a particular school.

But everybody has to look at their own context, their own concerns, and if they feel like their child has some symptoms, the best thing always is just to go in and get a blood lead level test.

You mentioned the YK Hemp program there. This is the Health Effects Monitoring Program. It was launched in 2017 to meet the requirements of the Giant Mine remediation project’s environmental assessment. It largely exists, frankly, to look at other things beyond lead levels. Researchers involved with that program did last year suggest they had identified a slight but unexplained increase in lead levels among Yellowknife youth. How do those results factor in with what we now know coming back from William Mac?

There were three periods of testing – 2017, 2023 and then in 2024, there was a follow-up on the 2023 results. In 2023 there was an increased blip, but then there was a drop in 2024. Whatever was the ongoing exposure during that period was no longer ongoing in 2024. If William Mac was a main source, you would continue to see an increase in lead levels.

The only speculation is that during 2023, we had excessive wildfire smoke. There were days and days we were breathing in wildfire smoke at levels that could cause health problems. We know lead can be produced in the air during wildfire smoke, but that’s speculation. That’s the only thing we can see that was a huge issue in the summer of 2023 that could have led to increased lead levels.

More: Read a June 26 update from the YK Hemp team

What should people who are concerned do?

People are concerned and they have reason to be concerned. The simplest thing is to book an appointment and get a health risk assessment, which will probably lead to a blood lead level. That’s going to be what most parents and most staff are looking for.

I’m a mother of a student that attended William Mac and so I get it, because my child also attended that school, and I get the anxiety. And for myself, my son was part of the YK Hemp study. So I have the results. That information is very helpful for me, so I can understand why parents would want to have that additional reassurance, and there is a mechanism to get that.

Parents may be in a situation where they don’t know what to feel. We know lead is toxic and we understand it has an impact. On the other hand, a lot of the guidance is that for children of the age that most William Mac students are, and for adults, the impact is probably less. As a parent who has a lot of knowledge about this situation and is affected by it personally, but has a clear understanding of it professionally, how do you feel?

I feel quite comfortable. I would not actually do the callback request form because I’ve done the risk assessment. I have results already from the YK Hemp study right after my son would have finished at William Mac, and the results are pretty-much low. They’re way below any concern level that I would have.

That’s more myself. I think parents need to have a dialogue with their children. Look at the backgrounder, look at the consumption patterns of your children and if you’re uncertain, book that appointment. Not everyone has my background or my comfort level, and every person needs to look at it in context.

As we get older, we absorb way less lead compared to children under six or those who are pregnant. In all the literature you’ll read, they always say the most vulnerable groups at highest risk for toxicity would be infants, children under six and unborn babies. If anyone sees themselves in that situation, I completely recommend in those scenarios: go get tested.

We also have to realize blood lead levels have a half life of 35 days. If people had exposure more than a year ago, the lead level may have dropped significantly. You might not find anything in the test. Just a heads up.