The Lead that may Lurk in the Pipes at Your School

November 7, 2019

In the second article in a series in the Toronto Star on November 5, 2019, the article entitled, “The lead that may lurk in the pipes at your school” continues to reveal grave concerns about lead in our drinking water – especially in our schools. The article starts off by stating that “2,400 Ontario schools and daycares exceeded the current federal guideline for lead in drinking water in the past two years”. This figure represents a 275% increase from two years ago, and reflects the fact that there is more frequent testing being done and more stringent federal limits of 5 parts per billion (pp) – down from the previous 10 ppb.

 

Apparently, twenty-three schools and daycares across Ontario reported samples higher than 1,000 parts per billion – dramatically higher than the federal safety limit and a level that experts say can impact blood lead levels in a child immediately and risk damaging cognitive development. While this data has been available on a provincial website, there were no warnings given or flags raised to students, parents, and teachers impacted by these high lead levels. Surely, children deserve to be safe in their place of learning and this startling discovery calls into question whether Ontario children are, indeed, safe in their schools.

 

One school cited in the article is White Oaks Secondary School in Oakville, which had 22 water samples exceed the 5 ppb limit last year on one campus and 26 water samples with exceedances on another campus, with one sample showing 140 ppb – a level that is 28 times the federal safety guideline. 

 

It is important to note that the $16-billion of disrepair noted in Ontario’s publicly funded schools does not reflect any work needed to eliminate lead from drinking water in schools. Fix Our Schools has been calling for a Standard of Good Repair for Ontario’s schools for years and has asked the provincial government repeatedly to develop and execute a Standard of Good Repair for our schools that would include not only standards for lead in drinking water, but also standards for things such as air quality, asbestos and classroom temperatures – none of which are currently reflected in the $16-billion of disrepair noted in Ontario’s schools. Given that the effects of lead in a human body are irreversible, lead in our children’s drinking water at schools is an issue that must be taken seriously.

The Ontario Ministry of Education appears to be pushing blame and responsibility down to school boards for resolving the issue of lead in drinking water, saying that “while it allocates funding to school boards, those boards are responsible for deciding how the funds are spent, as they are in the best position to determine their renewal priorities and local needs”. However, school boards rely exclusively on provincial funding to be able to maintain and repair its buildings and this provincial funding was a mere fraction of what it ought to have been for almost two decades. This gross and chronic underfunding by our provincial governments have left school boards in the unenviable position of having to make impossible decisions. How would you decide whether your first priority is to repair a leaking roof or to replace lead pipes, knowing you don’t have the money to do both? Again, we must emphasize that the $16-billion of disrepair logged in Ontario’s publicly funded schools does not reflect repairs needed to replace lead fixtures, pipes, and solder. 

 

How Much Lead is in Your Water?

November 5, 2019

In the November 4, 2019 edition of the Toronto Star, an article entitled, “Is there lead in your tap water? Canada-wide investigation exposes dangerous levels of toxic metal” started off by stating, “that hundreds of thousands of Canadians are consuming tap water laced with high levels of lead leaching from aging and deteriorating infrastructure”.

This article is the culmination of a year-long investigation by more than 120 journalists from nine universities and ten media organizations. This investigation revealed that 33% of water tests exceeded the national safety guideline of five parts per billion. The article suggests that “government oversight is often lax and secretive” when it comes to lead in our water, stating that “lead testing data in Canada is rarely made public and some municipalities aren’t required to test”.

In Ontario, where the Fix Our Schools campaign is focused, government data shows 919 lead exceedances over the past two years:

  • In London, Ontario, 50% of tests conducted last year exceeded federal safety guidelines for lead in drinking water.
  • Windsor had the highest number of lead exceedances over the past two years.
  • Many water systems across Ontario did not test for lead in water at all over the past two years.
  • Out of Ontario’s 660 municipal water systems, only 123 of them posted results of tests taken at homes during the past two years and of those 123, 42% of these municipalities showed lead exceedances.

Health Canada and the World Health Organization both agree that there is no safe level of lead in drinking water. In fact, a single glass of water highly tainted with lead can elevate a child’s blood lead level to require hospitalization. Reduction in IQ can occur even at the 5 parts per billion – the level of lead deemed safe in Canada. At high levels of exposure, lead can cause damage to the prefrontal cortext of the brain and contribute to anti-social behaviour and behavioural problems in children.

 

According Bruce Lamphear, a leading Canadian drinking water researcher, lead in our tap water is “clearly a major public health problem, even if it’s an insidious one.

According to a new report from the Canadian Environmental Law Association to be published this coming week, “the current state of drinking water delivery in Ontario means that Ontario residents, their children, pregnant women, and their unborn fetuses, may still be at risk of lead exposure and lead poisoning from the lead plumbing components of their homes, schools, daycares, and workplaces.” This report calls on Ontario to change legislation to require a minimum of 75% of municipal lead service lines be replaced within three to five years.

However, funding is cited as a limiting factor. Water officials across Ontario told reporters that municipalities are many years – or decades – away from being able to pay for replacing all lead service lines; and that municipalities would need funding assistance from both federal and provincial levels of government. Another challenge of addressing lead in our tap water is that there is no provincial or federal inventory of lead lines so even with funding, municipalities may not even know where to start replacing lines.

 

Given that in 2013, Health Canada predicted an economic benefit of $9-billion per year if the exposure  of Canadian children could be eliminated, there appears to be not only a moral imperative to address lead in our drinking water but also an economic one. Fix Our Schools has been calling for a Standard of Good Repair in Ontario’s publicly funded schools for years now – one that would include a standard for our children’s drinking water in schools. Lead in our drinking water is an insidious public health issue – and one that, indeed, must be addressed sooner than later. More transparency on data is needed and more advocacy and more oversight.

 

TDSB Releases Updated Disrepair Data – Will Province Follow Suit?

October 31, 2019

The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has released its annual snapshot of the condition of its schools. The Fix Our Schools campaign applauds the TDSB’s transparency on this issue and looks to the Ministry of Education to follow suit in updating and releasing disrepair data for all of Ontario’s publicly funded schools. As per today’s media release, the TDSB repair backlog currently stands at $3.5 billion and could hit $5.2-billion by 2023 without additional and predictable funding from the provincial government.

The last time the Province updated and released disrepair data for all of Ontario’s schools was two years ago in October 2017. At that time, the total disrepair in schools across the province totaled $15.9-billion, as determined by a third-party engineering firm hired by the Ministry of Education. Ontarians deserve to know if provincial funding for school repairs has been sufficient to start to see total disrepair in Ontario schools start to decrease – or if more needs to be done. Over 2-million children in this province spend their days in publicly funded schools and they deserve safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning. According to John Malloy, Director, TDSB, “Adequate (provincial) funding to modernize our schools is needed to ensure we have learning environments that support student achievement and well-being.”

Our provincial government is responsible for providing all funding for education and schools. This provincial funding provided to school boards for school repairs was grossly inadequate for almost 20 years, in many years only ONE-TENTH of what industry standards suggest as the bare minimum school boards required to conduct routine repairs and maintenance. This gross and chronic provincial underfunding meant that Mike Harris’ PC government bequeathed $5.6-billion of school disrepair to the Liberal government in 2003 and that the Liberals allowed school disrepair to triple over 15 years to a shocking $15.9-billion as of October 2017. Again, we urge the Ministry of Education to release updated disrepair data as soon as possible, in the same format as in October 2017 to provide transparency to all Ontarians. According to Robin Pilkey, Chair, TDSB, “The fact that the TDSB’s backlog could hit $5.2-billion by 2023 clearly demonstrates the need for additional and predictable (provincial) funding”.

 

Doug Ford’s Government is Back at Queen’s Park

October 29, 2019

After the longest recess in a quarter-century, Ontario’s MPPs returned to Queen’s Park this week. According to the Globe and Mail,  Premier Ford has promised a new, less confrontational approach to governing the province. As per the Toronto Star, the first legislation of the new session focused on allowing bars and restaurants beyond security checkpoints in some airports to serve alcohol 24 hours a day.

Fix Our Schools continues to be a non-partisan, Ontario-wide, parent-led campaign calling for safe, healthy, well-maintained publicly funded schools. To achieve this goal, we ask Doug Ford’s government to please increase provincial funding for school repairs, renewal, operational maintenance and new school builds. We also ask for the province to provide predictable funding to school boards. Adequacy and stability of provincial funding is an absolute necessity for school boards to be efficient and effective in dealing with repair backlogs in their buildings.

Additionally, we ask that Doug Ford’s government please update and release disrepair and Facility Conditions Index information for Ontario’s schools in the same format that was previously released in October 2017. The public deserves transparency into this data. Only by tracking the impact of provincial funding on school conditions, will we be able to objectively measure the adequacy of this provincial funding and determine the way forward.

 

MPP Kramp: $115.9-million of Disrepair in Hastings-Lennox-Addington Schools

October 24, 2019

Dear MPP Kramp,

Did you know there is $115.9-million of disrepair in the publicly funded schools in your riding of Hastings-Lennox-Addington?

We wanted to share the following details of disrepair in each school in your riding in the hope that this detailed information would underscore the importance of developing standards of good repair for Ontario schools and also the importance of providing the adequate, stable provincial funding to school boards required for them to meet those new standards and eliminate the $15.9-billion repair backlog that plagues Ontario’s schools:

Total disrepair in each publicly funded school in Hastings-Lennox-Addington:

Holy Name of Mary Catholic School  $                    1,672,985
J J O’Neill Catholic School  $                    1,443,307
Our Lady of Mercy Catholic School  $                    1,166,100
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic School  $                    1,441,497
St Carthagh Catholic School  $                    1,505,003
St Mary Catholic School, Read  $                        974,863
St Patrick Catholic School, Erinsville  $                        387,672
Bayside Public School  $                    2,931,076
Bayside Secondary School  $                  18,332,196
Birds Creek Public School  $                    3,602,489
Centre Hastings Secondary School  $                    6,984,076
Deseronto Public School  $                        966,837
Foxboro Public School  $                        904,031
Hermon Public School  $                    3,224,900
Madoc Public School  $                    2,261,433
Madoc Township Public School  $                    2,862,753
Maynooth Public School  $                    2,430,385
North Hastings High School  $                  18,489,028
Susanna Moodie Elementary School  $                    2,373,132
Tyendinaga Public School  $                    1,785,384
York River Public School  $                    3,389,549

School conditions matter. They impact student learning, attendance, and health.

We commend you for personally signing the Fix Our Schools Pledge leading up to the June 2018 provincial election and ask that you and your government please prioritize schools as critical infrastructure. Please take the steps necessary to ensure that the disrepair in all of Ontario’s publicly funded schools is eliminated and that schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working. Please also note that the disrepair data we are relying upon is now two years old and must be updated and shared publicly.

We look forward to hearing back from you with details on your plan to Fix Ontario’s Schools and with details on when your government will update and release FCI/Disrepair data for all publicly funded schools in Ontario.

PLEASE NOTE: Fix Our Schools is relying on the most recent disrepair data provided by the Ministry of Education in Fall 2017 and has mapped postal codes provided by the Ministry for each school to riding postal code information from a third party. Therefore, it is possible that there may be small errors in the data provided here and we would be grateful if community members would contact us with any errors. 

Liberal Minority will lead Canada

October 22, 2019

Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have a minority government. Pundits have varying opinions on how effective a minority government can be, as outlined in the Toronto Star piece entitled, “Minority Report: the good, bad, and ugly of hung parliaments”, published on October 18, 2019. Our fingers are crossed that, given the urgency of issues facing Canada and the planet, that this parliament will put aside its differences and any ego

At Fix Our Schools, we continue to prioritize school conditions as a key issue, given the important role that school infrastructure, including school infrastructure on First Nations reserves, plays in the lives and education of our young people. We also believe that improving Canada’s school infrastructure is a part of the solution towards addressing our climate change crisis with countless aging school buildings across the country representing huge opportunities for green renewal.

From coast to coast, school infrastructure in Canada desperately needs investment and renewal:

  1. From Manitoba, First Nation students sickened, forced from school due to ‘mould crisis’

2) From British Columbia, Shuswap school to reopen after mysterious smell causes seven-week shutdown

3) From Prince Edward Island, Status quo is not acceptable at Eliot River Elementary, says parent group pushing for improvements at school

Portables: Just One Reason Why Ontario Needs a Standard of Good Repair for Schools

October 17, 2019

Leading up to the last provincial election in June 2018, Fix Our Schools advocated for a Standard of Good Repair to be developed, implemented and funded by this provincial government. We were successful in obtaining the commitment of 58 elected MPPs to this concept and we continue to advocate for this idea to be realized.  You see, important aspects of our children’s learning environments are not reflected in the $15.9-billion of disrepair that has been assessed as required in Ontario’s schools. The following aspects are excluded:

  • Quality of drinking water due to old lead pipes
  • Quality of air due to asbestos in old school buildings and dampness/mold
  • Classroom temperatures, which are often too hot to learn in the spring and fall; and too cold to learn in the winter months
  • Conditions of portables, which are intended to be temporary facilities but often end up being on-site at a school for many, many years

 

We strongly believe the conditions of school portables ought to be assessed, and frequently hear from parents, students, and teachers about portables that are in a horrible state of disrepair.

 

If your child learns in a portable; or you teach in a portable, we’d love to hear from you about the learning/working conditions.  

 

Fix Our Schools Campaign: Key Successes

October 15, 2019

The Fix Our Schools campaign is comprised of parents, students, grandparents, teachers, principals, caretakers and citizens who believe that every publicly funded school in Ontario ought to be a safe, healthy, well-maintained building that provides an environment conducive to learning and working. We believe schools must be funded as a key component of our society’s infrastructure and that the $15.9-billion of disrepair in Ontario’s schools must be addressed immediately.

Our provincial government is responsible for providing all funding for education and schools. This provincial funding for school repairs was grossly inadequate for almost 20 years, in many years only ONE-TENTH of what industry standards suggest as the bare minimum school boards required to conduct routine repairs and maintenance. This gross and chronic provincial underfunding meant that Mike Harris’ PC government bequeathed $5.6-billion of school disrepair to the Liberal government in 2003 and that the Liberals allowed school disrepair to triple over 15 years to a shocking $15.9-billion as of October 2017. Furthermore, no provincial standard of good repair exists for Ontario schools to clearly outline the acceptable, measurable conditions for the critical public infrastructure we call schools.

Since launching in October 2014, we have built a large network of support across the province that has allowed us to achieve many successes – all of which have benefitted Ontario’s students, teachers, and education workers:

We believe that there is strength in numbers and power in our parent-led, non-partisan activism.  We encourage you to continue to engage with Fix Our Schools to help further our ongoing efforts to ensure that all Ontario’s publicly funded schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings.

  • Subscribe to our e-newsletters: fixourschools.ca
  • Engage with us on social media:
    • Facebook: Fix Our Schools
    • Twitter: @Fix_Our_Schools
  • Contact your local MPP, the Premier and the Education Minister to let them know you expect all publicly funded schools in Ontario to be safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working
  • Email photos of school disrepair to us @ info@fixourschools.ca to post anonymously. A picture is truly worth a thousand words! Please also send photos of Ontario’s school buildings that have recently been improved or built in your community! We’d love to see how the increased provincial funding for school repairs is benefitting your community.

MPP Anand: $92-M of Disrepair in Mississauga-Malton Schools

October 10, 2019

Dear MPP Anand,

Did you know there is $92-million of disrepair in the publicly funded schools in your riding of Mississauga-Malton?

In 2018 MPP Anand signed the Fix Our Schools Pledge to create a Standard of Good Repair for Ontario schools

We wanted to share the following details of disrepair in each school in your riding in the hope that this detailed information would underscore the importance of developing standards of good repair for Ontario schools and also the importance of providing the adequate, stable provincial funding to school boards required for them to meet those new standards and eliminate the $15.9-billion repair backlog that plagues Ontario’s schools:

 

 

Total disrepair in each publicly funded school in Mississauga-Malton:

Ascension of Our Lord  $                 340,000
Holy Cross Sep S  $             3,974,538
San Lorenzo Ruiz  $                 735,150
St. Gertrude Sep S  $             1,477,872
St. Gregory  $             1,284,738
St. Jude Sep S  $             2,375,708
St. Raphael Sep S  $             1,438,969
St. Raymond  $                 844,662
St. Valentine Elementary School  $                 862,914
St. Veronica Elementary School  $                 995,000
Barondale P.S.  $             4,299,346
Brandon Gate PS  $             3,637,543
Bristol Road Middle School  $             3,972,918
Britannia P.S.  $                 763,542
Champlain Trail PS  $             1,775,960
Cooksville Creek P.S.  $             1,431,738
Corliss PS  $             3,033,266
Darcel Avenue Sr PS  $             5,417,805
Derry West Village P.S.  $             1,278,958
Dunrankin Drive PS  $             4,684,051
Lancaster PS  $             3,848,023
Lincoln M. Alexander SS  $           19,557,793
Marvin Heights PS  $             4,299,653
Morning Star Middle School  $           11,932,954
Nahani Way PS  $             2,780,794
Ridgewood PS  $             4,232,512
Whitehorn PS  $                 757,052

School conditions matter. They impact student learning, attendance, and health.

We commend you for personally signing the Fix Our Schools Pledge leading up to the June 2018 provincial election and ask that you and your government please prioritize schools as critical infrastructure. Please take the steps necessary to ensure that the disrepair in all of Ontario’s publicly funded schools is eliminated and that schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working. Please also note that the disrepair data we are relying upon is now two years old and must be updated and shared publicly.

We look forward to hearing back from you with details on your plan to Fix Ontario’s Schools and with details on when your government will update and release FCI/Disrepair data for all publicly funded schools in Ontario.

PLEASE NOTE: Fix Our Schools is relying on the most recent disrepair data provided by the Ministry of Education in Fall 2017 and has mapped postal codes provided by the Ministry for each school to riding postal code information from a third party. Therefore, it is possible that there may be small errors in the data provided here and we would be grateful if community members would contact us with any errors. 

 

The Many Ways Education Workers Ensure Our Children’s Schools are Safe, Healthy and Well-maintained

October 8, 2019

Education workers include caretakers, office staff, education assistants and lunchroom supervisors – all of whom play important roles in ensuring our children’s schools are safe, healthy, and well-maintained:

  • They clean washrooms, door handles, water fountains, lunchrooms, desks, floors, stairs
  • They conduct much of the operational maintenance in schools
  • They conduct safe water checks for our children’s drinking water
  • They run safe arrival programs
  • They provide supervision and support for students with special needs
  • They provide educational support in full-day kindergarten classrooms
  • They supervise our children during lunch

Just to name a few of the important things education workers do in our children’s schools. Next time you see an education worker, please say thank  you!