Good morning. After learning that their drinking water has been contaminated, residents in communities across Canada are still waiting for answers about how badly their health may have been jeopardized and what the federal government will do to fix it. More on that below, plus leaps in quantum tech and a rise in youth revolt. But first:

• Mark Carney announces his government’s first five national projects of interest. Here’s a look at what is being reviewed for fast-tracking.
• The FBI have released photos and video of a person of interest in the killing of MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk.
• At least five clinical trials for childhood cancer treatments have been closed to Canadians because of the Trump administration’s funding cuts.
• The NHL says the players acquitted in the Hockey Canada sexual assault trial can return to the league.

Hi, I’m Wendy Cox, a deputy national editor at The Globe and I worked with our reporters on this weekend’s deep dive into tainted water.

In 2006, officials in Ottawa finally declared as toxic one of the chemicals in fire-fighting foams that were widely used to suppress aviation fuel fires.

The declaration came after almost 30 years of research – some of it done quietly by the chemical companies that were marketing the foams as safe. The science showed the chemicals in the foam were having fatal impacts in tests on rats and rhesus monkeys.

A further 20 years on, communities across Canada are gradually learning their drinking water may be contaminated with some of the polyfluoroalkyl substances – PFAS or toxic “forever chemicals” – in the foams after the compounds seeped into groundwater.

As The Globe reports in its investigation we’ve called Tainted Taps, some 11 communities are getting bottled water shipments from federal authorities after testing showed PFAS levels beyond what Health Canada considers safe.

Ottawa’s Treasury Board publicly lists 87 federal sites where the compounds have contaminated groundwater, many at or near airports and military bases where firefighting foams were heavily used. Those locations are posted on a public database, but the database doesn’t reveal how many sites have leached PFAS into drinking water.

The Globe’s water reporter, Patrick White, and our Atlantic reporter based in Halifax, Lindsay Jones, spent 10 months researching and reviewing hundreds of pages of court documents and interviewing residents.

The Globe confirmed the 11 communities with three government departments, but we could not get answers on where all those communities are.

The Department of Defence has said it is delivering bottled water to four households in Mountainview Ont., and to a further 23 households in North Bay, Ont. The National Research Council acknowledged it has facilitated water deliveries in Mississippi Mills, Ont., near Ottawa.

But Transport Canada will not release the list of the eight locations where it is delivering water. Court records show Torbay, Nfld., Yarmouth, N.S., and Abbotsford, B.C., are among them.

People in some of these communities found out about the contamination in a variety of ways, many of them indirect. The few dozen residents of Mississippi Mills received a hand-delivered letter in 2015. They learned later that the National Research Council knew about the chemicals in their water two years before.

In North Bay, Ont., the first warning for some locals came in the form of a road sign: “Do Not Eat Fish From Lee’s Creek.”

In Torbay, Nfld., residents say some homes were selected for sampling, others had to ask.

Research has shown that PFAS have turned up in living organisms all over the world, and it’s taken years for Canadian authorities to decide what level of contamination is dangerous.

The EU limits 20 individual PFAS to 100 ng/L in drinking water. In the U.S., new Environmental Protection Agency’s limits will cap two common PFAS at just four ng/L.

When Health Canada announced in 2021 it would start setting limits on PFAS as an entire class, its maximum levels ranged between 200 ng/L to 600 ng/L. Last summer, the agency concluded the limit should be closer to 30 ng/L for the total concentration of 25 PFAS.

Nancy Coombs, 49, and her family of Torbay, only found out about the contamination when a neighbour told her. After demanding a test, she learned her water showed PFAS levels of 105 ng/L – triple Health Canada’s guideline.

The shifting science, lack of consistent testing and haphazard or non-existent communication hasn’t filled residents in these communities with confidence.

“It’s just questions upon questions, just stressing us out,” Coombs told the Globe.

She can’t help but worry about possible health effects, and she had cancer remo