Water in Canada

Just the tip of a public-health iceberg - this could be major. From The Beeb:

Lead levels in Canadian water 'exceed safe limit' in a third of cases
The amount of lead in the water supply of major Canadian cities exceeded safe levels in hundreds of thousands of homes, a major investigation has found.

Some areas showed lead levels "similar" to those in the US city of Flint, Michigan, during its 2015 water crisis.

Out of 12,000 samples taken from 2014 to 2018, one third exceeded the national safety guideline of 5 parts per billion (ppb).

The US limit is 15 ppb so 5 ppb is not earth shattering - BUT - 

While a third exceeded the safe limit of 5ppb, 18% were over the US limit of 15ppb.

Now this is bad. The cities in question?

Among the areas studied were Montreal, the second-largest city in Canada (population 1.75m), and Oakville, an affluent part of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Regina, the capital of the prairie province of Saskatchewan, and the city of Prince Rupert, in northern British Columbia, were also included.

A bit more:

The biggest source of lead in Canada's drinking water is antiquated pipes and public service lines that connect people's homes to the main water supply. A government report from 2017 estimated that about 500,000 homes across the country were affected.

Tests are done differently across the country, and sometimes are not done at all, the journalistic investigation revealed.

And it is not just large urban areas:

The exception would be on indigenous reserves under the control of the federal government. There are currently 57 long-term drinking water advisories affecting indigenous communities across the country, according to Indigenous Services Canada.

Screw over the Indians - both Canada and the USA have a long history of that. This is also a perfect example of not maintaining the infrastructure. It is so easy to budget money for shiny new things - universal health care for example,  alternative energy for another, then to use it to dig up and replace old pipes. That is just a boring hole in the ground.