Yesterday, @OntLiberal environment critic, @marymargaretbey, directly asked the government questions about the future of well water testing by Public Health Labs, one of which is located in Kingston. Unfortunately, they didn't guarantee it ⬇️ Question: “Are you going to continue the free well water testing in Ontario?” Sneaky Answer: “Public Health Ontario provides free testing of water…” (They evaded answering the question) Question: “Are you going to close the six public health testing labs?” Answer: (no answer) 1/🧵 #ONpoli
The Medical Officer of Health for Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington said recently, “Access to free and readily available private well water sampling is an important public health approach for private well users.”
Having a local lab in Kingston is important because local well water samples are time and temperature sensitive. If we have to send samples to Toronto, they will have to be couriered and still risk possible rejection.
The Walkerton water tragedy happened after regional laboratories were closed in 1996 and municipal water testing was privatized by the last conservative government.
Trying to save money on the system that tests for clean water is just dumb. Keep the regional public health labs open, @fordnation, @SylviaJonesMPP.