Why it took almost 8 hours for Halifax water emergency on Canada Day to get provincial alert

Halifax’s CAO hesitated to send an emergency alert through the province’s system about a boil-water order affecting more than 200,000 people, documents obtained through an access-to-information request show.

The provincial alert service has a wider reach than the municipality’s service.

On Canada Day, the boil-water order for people in the Halifax area who get their water from the Pockwock treatment facility was put in place after an internal electrical issue allowed some unchlorinated water to enter the system for about 30 minutes.

The order caused widespread disruptions throughout the municipality, prompting some businesses and daycares to close, and causing hordes of people to flock to grocery stores for bottled water.

While Halifax Water learned of the issue around 1:20 p.m. AT on July 1, it sent out a news release regarding the boil-water order at 6 p.m.

Less than 30 minutes later, the city sent out an alert through its hfxALERT platform. However, users must sign up to receive the alerts, which can come via text message, email or an app notification.

It was this gap that concerned Coun. Patty Cuttell.

“Lots of people not signed up for hfxALERT,” she wrote in an email to CAO Cathie O’Toole and some other councillors and HRM officials at 8:03 p.m. “Is this something that should go out through the provincial alert system? What is the risk?”

Under the province’s emergency alert system, messages are automatically sent to people’s cellphones — they do not have to sign up to receive them. As well, they can geographically target people in specific areas.

A series of texts on July 1 between O’Toole and Kenda MacKenzie, Halifax Water’s acting general manager, show O’Toole was initially hesitant to use the provincial alert system.

The timing of the messages isn’t clear, but O’Toole noted she received a request to use the provincial alert system.

“I said that it is not typically used for boil water advisories but I will check,” she wrote.

MacKenzie replied that the hfxALERT system was probably adequate, unless the messaging could be geographically targeted to recipients.

“I hesitate to use the Prov system,” wrote O’Toole. “People just need to boil their water.”

MacKenzie had a one-word response: Exactly.

Before becoming HRM’s CAO in 2023, O’Toole spent more than a decade in management at Halifax Water, including as general manager.

In an email to some municipal and Halifax Water officials, O’Toole wrote at 7:37 p.m. that she had spoken with the province, noting other municipalities sometimes use the provincial alert system for boil-water orders.

“I think we should send one to broaden the message of who receives it,” O’Toole wrote. (Cuttell was not included on this email.)

Halifax Water was unaware it had access to the provincial alert system, only learning it was an option on Canada Day evening.

“[W]e’d never used it before, so we had to understand what the process was to get something in, and we also had to condense it, so it was all a new process to us,” a spokesperson told CBC News in July.

The provincial alert was sent out at 8:49 p.m.

It was initially believed the boil-water order would last 24 to 48 hours.

Province pushed for provincial emergency alert

On July 2, O’Toole said in an email to some municipal and Halifax Water staff that a provincial alert should be used when the boil-water order ended, given it had been used to notify people in the first place.

In a reply to the email, an HRM communications official said the alert “is not used for a situation like this as there is no immediate danger.” O’Toole then said the municipality would not use the provincial emergency alert to notify the public when the order was lifted.

The following day at 9:39 a.m. — and with the subject line URGENT — O’Toole wrote in an email that she learned from the province that the boil-water order could be lifted.

“Prov WANTS us to use the emergency alert system to [lift] the boil,” she wrote. “They believe it will get the message out in a more timely manner.”

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