Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education. So within the past day, parents of students at Ecole William McDonald Middle School and Range Lake North School received news that drinking water in those schools is dangerously high in lead. At William McDonald School, the levels were almost twice the maximum acceptable concentration according to Health Canada's guidelines. And we know that exposure to high levels of lead over time can cause adverse health effects and given that the city's water supply is regularly tested and deemed safe, the problem must be with some part of the plumbing or distribution systems at the schools.
So, Mr. Speaker, to the Minister, how many schools in the NWT have had their drinking water tested this year? In other words, how many were determined to have safe drinking water versus how many of the water quality tests have come back as unsafe to drink? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, all of our schools' water systems were tested, and two of the schools came back as needing confirmation testing and so, proactively, the departments of education, health and social services, and the school board, worked together to make sure that that water is not used right now for drinking or for cooking purposes. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Okay, so that's good to know that the only two schools with problems are William Mac and Range Lake North. However, I'm wondering has the drinking water at Ecole William McDonald School and Range Lake North School been tested on a regular basis and determined to be safe up until now, or is this the first time that the drinking water at those schools has been tested? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, drinking water is routinely tested in communities throughout the territory. This project was done as a pilot to test drinking water from the school sources, and so this is the first time this work has been done.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Speaker. So it sounds like we don't know for how long the concern has been there.
The final question is if the plumbing and distribution systems in these two schools are the source of these high lead levels, does the Minister know how quickly they can be fixed? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the course of the next week, confirmation testing will be done in both of the schools and until we determine what those results are and then also from there do some exploration as to what the source of the issue is, I would have -- it would be impossible for me to say kind of what the next steps are for remediating that and fixing that until I know what the issue is and if there is, in fact, a longstanding challenge there that needs to be fixed. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
