15-07-2025
N.W.T. education minister commits to recommendations after school lead investigation
The N.W.T.'s Education Minister says her department is committed to implementing the recommendations an independent investigator made after looking into how the territory responded to the discovery of lead in drinking water at two Yellowknife schools.
Cayley Thomas, an alternative dispute resolution lawyer with the firm Thomas ADR, made a number of recommendations after Education Minister Caitlin Cleveland tasked her with investigating what happened.
Her findings were released publicly on Monday, along with a pair of water quality assessment reports by the firm Stantec Consulting Ltd. during a territorial news conference.
One of Thomas's recommendations is that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE) oversee the development of a plan to test for lead in drinking water at all N.W.T. schools on a yearly basis, complete with testing protocols, plans for what to do if lead levels were too high, and a communication plan.
"We are committed to, in principle, applying the recommendations," Education Minister Caitlin Cleveland said Tuesday morning on CBC's The Trailbreaker.
Thomas's other recommendations are that:
The office of the chief public health officer prepare an education presentation for the education and infrastructure departments and Yellowknife school boards.
Any issues with human health implications at schools, daycares or educational facilities be flagged to management immediately.
That roles, responsibilities and lines of communication be clarified between the education department and the Yellowknife school boards.
That any outstanding tests be done this fall.
That the chief public health officer and education department officials should meet face to face to talk about best practices for future water testing.
Thomas found that the root cause of delays in communicating and taking action was that staff in both the education and infrastructure departments didn't understand the health implications of lead in drinking water.
Cleveland did not directly answer a question about whether there would be consequences for education staff who were involved.
"This has been very public," Cleveland said, adding that the intent of the project had been positive from the outset.
"There was nothing malicious about this. Everybody who worked on this was, in earnest, feeling like they were coming at this from a place of proactivity, in a place of wanting to do good. So this has been a very big challenge for the public servants that have been involved."
