Water, water, everywhere…#nlpoli

Before they took office in 2003 – an election year -  the province’s Conservatives pounded the incumbent Liberals for the poor quality of drinking water across the province.

Danny Williams thought the whole thing was such a big problem that he promised to make drinking water a key part of the Conservative agenda after the 2003 election.

Once in office, the Conservatives did nothing about drinking water at all.

Significant digits: December 2009

1.  Number of days Tom Rideout was premier:  43.

2.  Number of days the House of Assembly sat in 2009:  43.

3.  Average number of days the House of Assembly has sat each year of the current administration (since 2004): 43.

4.  Number of provincial Conservatives in the House of Assembly:  43

5.  Number of boil water advisories in effect in Newfoundland and Labrador as of June 2009,  the last date the list was updated:   239  (Some communities were affected by more than one boil water order.)

6.  Total number of boil water advisories in the province as of April 1, 2008:  228.

7.  Total number of communities affected by boil water advisories in the province as of June 2009:  174.

8.  Total number of communities in Newfoundland and Labrador: 593. (Yes, that means 29% of communities had at least one boil water advisory in place in June 2009.)

9.  Longest time under boil water advisory: 20 years 11 months (Branch, 01 Jan 1989.)

10.  Total number of days in which someone made reference to boil water advisories or drinking water quality in the House of Assembly since 01 January 2008:  2.

-srbp-

Hitchhiker’s Update: