Health minister defends department's Parlee Beach decisions

Health Minister Victor Boudreau spent almost three hours defending his department's approach to Parlee Beach water ratings on Wednesday including a few minutes speculating about what staff from another department were thinking when they made testing mistakes in 2016.

Boudreau repeated the government's previous message that blamed inaccurate testing on errors by employees at the Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture.

That department runs Parlee Beach and has been responsible for water testing there since 2001.

Last summer, tourism staffused averages rather than looking at individual fecal contamination ratings, resulting in fewer days with "poor" water ratings than would otherwise have been the case.

• Water monitoring at Parlee Beach failed to meet Canadian guidelines

Boudreau said the public health branch of his department has little to do with the testing, other than training park staff at the start of each season in how to do water testing.

"They can explain the process at their end," he said. "We can only explain the process at our end."

Ministeroffers some speculation

But Boudreau went on to speculate about what was going through the minds of the tourismstaff.

"When your provincial guidelines are 30, and your federal guidelines are 35, then does 31 become a serious health risk?" he asked. "I don't think it does."

The provincial standard for a poor rating is fecal bacteria counts of 30 per 100 millilitres of water. But the federal standard is an average of 35 in five samples.

Earlier in the day, Boudreau said 30 or higher was a firm, hard provincial standard.

But when he began speculating about what the tourism staff was thinking, he suggested they may have been influenced by other factors, such as a lack of wind, no recent rain and a smaller number of swimmers.

"I'm not saying it's the right decision," he said, "but I'm saying there would have been an interpretation by the staffer locally to say, 'Look, 35 is the federal guideline, maybe because we're between 30 and 35 and the other conditions are favourable, maybe it's not as serious a deal.'"

Ames not asked about beach

Boudreau was appearing before the budget estimates committee of the legislature to explain his department's spending plans for 2017-18, but spent almost three hours taking questions about Parlee Beach.

When he speculated about what the tourism staff was thinking, Boudreau emphasized he was "just trying to get into the heads of some of these people on the ground doing this work."

Tourism Minister John Ames appeared before the same committee last week, but Opposition MLAs asked him no questions about Parlee Beach.

Boudreau said Wednesday said there was no directive from the Health Department or its public health branch to deviate from the standards that have been in place at Parlee since 2001.

• Province didn't follow own rules for water quality at Parlee Beach

But Opposition Progressive Conservative health critic Brian Macdonald said Boudreau needed to explain why regional public health staff in Moncton didn't spot the averaging of the test results.

"If I found the rating didn't agree with the guidelines I'd been following for 16 years, I'd raise a red flag," he said. "I look at it, I review it, I see if it's up to scratch, and it's not up to scratch, I do my duty and report the error."

New system being studied

A government committee is now studying how to come up with a better water testing system to avoid such mistakes in the future.

"This process is too loosely put together, it's too subjective, and that's what needs to be reviewed by the committee, so there is less interpretation and more fact," Boudreau said.

• Ottawa willing to help Parlee Beach with contamination problem

Boudreaupointed out he represents theShediac-Beaubassin-Cap-Pelriding, whichincludesParleeBeach, so he understands the importance of the beach to the local economy, he said.

He said he was one of those "who has pushed the hardest" to fix the testing system.

The new system will be in place in time for this summer, he said.

The government is also trying to identify the source of the contamination. He said there could be "various sources of contamination," including fish plants, boats and faulty septic systems.

Macdonald asked if the growth in campgrounds in the area could be a factor. Boudreau, who has an investment in a proposed campground that he has put in a blind trust, said campgrounds are connected to the sewage system run by the Greater Shediac Sewage Commission.

Boudreau also explained on Wednesday why he said on Jan. 19 that staff had followed provincial guidelines. He said at the time, the error by tourism staff hadn't been discovered.

Environment Minister Serge Rousselle first revealed the mistakes Feb. 6.