After weeks of questions from opposition critics and public health units surrounding an Auditor General’s report that noted a possible discontinuation of public testing of well water, the Ministry of Health says it intends to keep free well water testing in the province.
“We will continue to test the well water in the province of Ontario,” said Sylvia Jones, Ontario’s minister of health, during question period in Queen’s Park on April 22. “It is a system that many of us understand the value and importance of in rural Ontario because we have lived it every single day. We’re going to continue that process.”
The question of the province ending free public well water testing has been a hot-button issue in Queen’s Park over the last few weeks. An auditor general report from last December recently resurfaced that recommended the province move forward with a plan to “streamline” public health labs.
The report cited a 2017 plan proposed by Public Health Ontario and the ministry to reduce public health labs’ services, including shutting down six out of 11 provincial health labs and reducing the types of tests publicly offered, including gradually phasing out private well water testing.
Public Health Ontario proposes phasing out free water testing of private wells
Public outcry in response to province’s plan to cut public lab services
In early April, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) sounded the alarm about their concerns regarding reducing public lab services, calling the plan “short-sighted and dangerous.”
“Make no mistake, lives are at risk,” said OPSEU president JP Hornick in a press release on April 19. “ To meet demand and keep our communities safe, we need to expand public health lab testing capacity—not cut it.”
In a news conference, Sudbury MPP Jamie West added that it could cost the public $150 per water sample if free testing ended. He also spoke out in support of OPSEU during the question period on April 17.
“Not everyone in Ontario knows where Walkerton is, but all of us know what Walkerton was,” said West, who was concerned about the broader health implications of cutting access to public testing.
In 2000, the municipal water supply in Walkerton, Ont. was contaminated with E. coli. The water infected nearly half of the community’s population of 5,000 and caused the deaths of seven people.
“Something like the Walkerton crisis doesn’t happen randomly,” says Ted Hsu, the MPP from Kingston and the Liberal party’s critic for rural issues.
Hsu says that consistent access to free well water testing, especially for rural communities that rely on private water supplies, allows public health units to monitor the presence of bacteria and prevent another outbreak like Walkerton.
He voiced his concerns by putting forward a unanimous motion during the April 17 question period to protect water testing and ensure that current safety regulations “remain unchanged.”
“I urge the Ford Conservatives to immediately reverse course, support my motion, and show unequivocal support for continued free well water testing at local public health labs,” he wrote in a letter to Minister Jones and Lisa Thompson, Ontario’s minister of agriculture, food, and rural affairs.
The motion was ultimately rejected by the House, with Ontario’s minister of municipal affairs, Paul Calandra adding the house would not entertain the Liberal party’s “games.”
On April 22, Minister Jones said that testing for well water in the province would continue, a departure from a previous statement a ministry spokesperson made to Cottage Life on April 9 that stated the ministry had “not made any decisions” about changes to private well water testing.
Though Hsu is encouraged by Minister Jones’s “stronger language” in favour of keeping well water testing, he’s still concerned about the potential lab closures. In Hsu’s riding of Kingston, where one of the labs is slotted for potential closure, samples would be rerouted to Toronto.
“Local public health agencies would have to absorb the charges for couriers,” he says. “Public health units have already had their budgets eroded, and now they could have to spend more money.”
Transportation of water samples can be a delicate matter. Samples must be brought to a lab within 48 hours and stored at a proper temperature, otherwise, the results of the samples can degrade.
Hsu says the next step is getting evidence that the government won’t move forward with this plan. “I think it’s worth asking Queen’s Park about it again,” he says.
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