What went wrong with the NWT’s school water testing project

The author of a newly released investigation report says the NWT government should prioritize developing a coordinated approach for annual testing of drinking water in schools across the territory.

NWT education minister Caitlin Cleveland had ordered the third-party investigation into communication challenges and other issues with the territory’s school drinking water testing initiative in late May.

The results of that investigation, which was completed by alternative dispute resolution professional Cayley Thomas earlier this month, were publicly released on Monday afternoon.

Thomas identified communication issues, delays and a lack of a robust, coordinated testing plan. She stressed the need to respond quickly when information with human health implications is identified.

In a statement responding to Thomas’ findings on Monday, Cleveland said the investigation confirmed that “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,” Cleveland stated. “That is not acceptable. I take full responsibility for ensuring we fix it.”

The minister ordered the investigation after staff and guardians of students at Range Lake North School and École William McDonald Middle School in Yellowknife were notified on May 27 that tests had found elevated lead levels in the drinking water at the schools.

Sources of drinking water at both schools were blocked off and bottled water was provided for drinking and cooking while further testing was underway.

Questions arose about why staff and students were only informed about the issue in late May when the NWT government had received initial test results indicating high lead levels in drinking water at the schools in January, and secondary test results in April.

The territorial government then said those tests results were unreliable as they were “not conducted using national best practices for water sampling.”

Further, more robust testing completed in June – which involved testing multiple samples taken from several drinking water fixtures at each school – confirmed high lead levels in the water at École William McDonald Middle School.

The NWT government said the results indicated precautionary flushing would likely be needed at Range Lake North School

The NWT government, on Monday, released the full reports on testing conducted by engineering and environmental consulting firm Stantec at William McDonald and Range Lake North schools.

Failure to understand health implications of lead in drinking water

Thomas’ investigation report details a timeline of events and provides some answers about what was going on behind the scenes with the NWT’s school water testing project.

According to the investigation, the NWT government had identified the need to test the drinking water in schools as early as 2018. At the time, it planned single spot sampling, which it considered preliminary research to be used for future decision making.

Officials said testing did not proceed at that time due to funding constraints and the initiative was further delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic and wildfires.

Water testing began at NWT schools late last year after the Yukon government found high levels of lead in drinking water at several schools in early 2024.

Thomas documented numerous delays with communication and steps to address test results indicating elevated levels of lead in some NWT schools before May 27.

Thomas said among the most significant delays was the more than three months NWT government staff took to alert management of issues and the chief public health officer that some test results had exceeded the maximum allowable level of lead for drinking water in Canada.

She said the NWT government took more than a month to inform Yellowknife school boards additional testing was required for three schools. It took another month after that, she said, to resample the water in those schools.

“I came to the conclusion that the root cause of these delays was failure, at multiple levels, to adequately understand the health implications of lead in school drinking water,” Thomas wrote.

She added that there was limited technical or managerial oversight of the testing initiative, and no protocol in place for staff to flag the results for technical review or managerial action.

“It is fair to say that everyone involved in the initiative held an honest belief that the situation was “under control”– until it became apparent that it wasn’t,” she wrote.

Thomas said part of the problem is that the NWT government had no written project plan for sampling and testing drinking water in schools.

Had such a plan been developed, Thomas said, that information could have been provided to the chief public health officer who would have shared Health Canada’s recommended protocol for testing water in schools early on. She said the NWT government could have also had a plan to communicate and respond to elevated lead levels in place before testing began.

Recommendations from the report

Thomas made several recommendations to the NWT government to address the issues she identified.

She said any time human health implications are identified in a program, project or initiative involving a daycare or education facility, those issues should immediately be brought to the attention of management.

Thomas said the education department and office of the chief public officer should meet face-to-face to discuss options and best practices for future water sampling.

She said any outstanding water tests should be conducted in the fall under the direction or supervision of the chief public health officer.

Thomas said the NWT government should also invite the chief public health officer to make an educational presentation to the education and infrastructure departments, as well as Yellowknife school boards, on the implications of lead in drinking water.

She further called on the NWT government to clarify roles, responsibilities and lines of communication between the education department and Yellowknife school boards regarding the responsibility for sampling drinking water, testing and taking actions to mitigate risks.

GNWT hopes to ‘rebuild trust’

John MacDonald, deputy minister of executive and Indigenous affairs, said the NWT government is taking a coordinated approach to respond to the investigation’s findings and recommendations.

“This is no longer an issue handled in silos. The senior members from all departments are now at the table working together,” he told reporters on Monday.

“Part of releasing these reports is to ensure transparency and, I hope, to rebuild trust.”

MacDonald said key to rebuilding trust is being more upfront about health-related information as quickly as possible.

“We all understand how important that is for families, for students, for the public at large,” he said. “I think we have to do a better job of communicating quickly and being more responsive to the needs of the public to understand what’s going on.”

Officials said work currently underway includes planning to remediate sites where lead has been confirmed and developing a long-term water testing program for schools guided by the methods used by Stantec.

The NWT government said the source of the lead in William McDonald school’s drinking water is still being investigated and it is unclear how long it has been an issue.

“That work is ongoing. We’re looking at the drawings and working with our engineers but we don’t have that answer yet,” said Cathy Maniego, deputy minister of infrastructure.

She said once the source has been found, the territorial government will explore mitigation options. That could include a complete or partial replacement of plumbing and fixtures, or a point-use filter.

At Range Lake North, officials said they are developing a flushing protocol, which involves systematically running water through a plumbing system to remove stagnant water, sediment and potential contaminants.

The territorial government said it is prioritizing the testing of remaining schools based on risks such as the age of the building or age of students. Testing will begin this summer and continue into the school year.

Blood testing of concerned staff and students at William McDonald school is ongoing. As of July 7, the NWT government said, more than 80 appointment requests have been made.