Families and Staff,

We are writing to follow up on today’s announcement from the Department of Education and Early
Childhood Development on providing drinking water in schools.
Earlier this year, Health Canada set a new guideline for lead in drinking water. You can learn more about
this guideline here . Along with the new guideline, which reduces the maximum acceptable
concentration of lead in drinking water, are sampling protocols for how and when water can be tested.
As a result, all water sources in all schools in Nova Scotia will be sampled for lead. This sampling must
take place in warmer weather between June and October, according to Health Canada’s Guidelines for
Canadian Drinking Water Quality .

On December 19, the Province announced that all public schools across Nova Scotia will be provided
with drinking water starting in January, if:
 they have not yet been tested for lead; or
 they have been tested and it has been determined alternate water is needed.

Your school has not been tested to the new protocol.
Our Operations team is working with suppliers to place water and dispensers in all schools as soon as
possible. Through the month of January, these alternative water sources will be placed in schools and
will remain at least until the end of the school year. Please be assured that schools will spend time
educating students on using these alternative water sources.

The Halifax Regional Centre for Education takes the health and safety of our students and employees
very seriously. We are ready to sample the more than 6,000 water fountains and faucets in our 139
school buildings in June in accordance with the Health Canada guideline.

Please reach out to us at connect@hrce.ca if you have any questions.