Published September 15, 2026 by Orbit Facility Services
Every licensed child care centre in Ontario has drinking-water obligations under O. Reg. 243/07 (Schools, Private Schools and Child Care Centres) under the Safe Drinking Water Act. The rules aim to reduce children’s exposure to lead from older plumbing. They are simple on paper and easy to miss in a busy centre.
How often do you need to flush?
The flushing frequency depends on your plumbing and your test history:
- Daily flushing applies if any part of your plumbing was installed before 1990 and you have fewer than two consecutive years of lead test results, or if there has been a lead exceedance in the past 24 months.
- Weekly flushing applies when pre-1990 plumbing has at least two years of compliant results, or when there is no pre-1990 plumbing and no recent exceedance. It happens on the first day the centre is open each week.
- No flushing is needed where the most recent standing sample was at or below 1 µg/L.
Flushing is done at the end points of the plumbing branches for at least five minutes, then for at least ten seconds at every drinking-water fixture.
When do you need to sample?
Centres sample within 30 days of opening and then each year between May 1 and October 31, so that every fixture is sampled within three years. Once a centre has two consecutive years with no exceedances and every fixture has been sampled, it can move to reduced sampling, every three years.
Where centres get caught out
- The flushing log has gaps after staff changes or holidays.
- Nobody knows which fixtures were sampled last year.
- An exceedance result arrives and nobody is sure who acts on it.
- A renovation adds or moves fixtures and the sampling plan isn’t updated.
How we handle it
For centres we manage, flushing sits on the weekly or daily compliance calendar, every flush is logged, and sampling is booked with an accredited lab within the May–October window. An exceedance is treated as a priority: the fixture is taken out of service and corrective action starts the same day.
This article is a plain-language summary, not legal advice. Check the current regulation and your public health unit’s guidance for your centre’s specific requirements.
Source: Government of Ontario, Flushing and sampling for lead, ontario.ca.