Brenda Librecz, Commissioner, Community & Fire Services, introduced the item. She explained that City of Markham Council has a statutory duty of oversight of the City of Markham's drinking water system, and to ensure that all staff and Members of Council comply with legislative requirements related to municipal drinking water systems.
Phoebe Fu, Director, Environmental Services, introduced Larry Moore, Trainer, Walkerton Clean Water Centre.
Larry Moore facilitated the training session and delivered an interactive PowerPoint presentation regarding the Standard of Care for Drinking Water Quality Management Standard and Safe Drinking Water Legislation Training.
The following topics were reviewed and discussed:
- Section 19 of the Safe Water Drinking Act (SWDA) regarding duty and liability of operating authorities of municipal drinking water systems;
- City of Markham's Drinking Water Quality Management System (DWQMS) for the management of the distribution system, monitoring, testing and response to incidents in accordance with SWDA and related legislation;
- Role of Council, Top Management (as defined in the Act) and staff;
- Risk assessment & risk management;
- Case studies of drinking water system failures:
- Walkerton, ON;
- North Battleford, SK;
- Flint, MI; and,
- Case study of Stratford's water system emergency response success.
A test was administered to all in attendance with 100% of the participants passing.
The following Members of Council were in attendance and took the mandatory training: Mayor Frank Scarpitti, Deputy Mayor Don Hamilton, Regional Councillor Jack Heath, Regional Councillor Joe Li, Regional Councillor Jim Jones, Councillor Keith Irish, Councillor Reid McAlpine, Councillor Karen Rea, Councillor Andrew Keyes, Councillor Amanda Collucci, Councillor Khalid Usman, Councillor Isa Lee.
The following members of Staff were in attendance and participated in the training: Andy Taylor, Chief Administrative Officer, Brenda Librecz, Commissioner, Community & Fire Services, Trinela Cane, Commissioner, Corporate Services, Catherine Conrad, City Solicitor, Phoebe Fu, Director, Environmental Services, Jawaid Khan, Manager Water/Wastewater, Shipra Singh, Manager Infrastructure Capital Planning, Rob Muir, Manager, Stormwater.
The following staff were in attendance to observe: Eddy Wu, Manager O&M, Gord Miokovic, Manager SE, Anna Antoniadis, Coordinator Certification & Compliance, Vince Feng, Coordinator QMS, Irene Weiss, Administrative Assistant to Phoebe Fu.
Council requested for the book ‘Taking Care of Your Drinking Water: A Guide for Members of Municipal Councils’ to be provided once available.