Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
Students at McMaster University's downtown residence are hoping a chlorination treatment of the building's water system will help them feel more comfortable to drink their tap water. McMaster said consultants had recommended using chlorine to sanitize the water after it tested positive for total coliforms bacteria. Students had complained of the murkiness of the water, among other issues at the residence.
Taralee Beardy never thought she would see her community get a safer source of water, but a national $8 billion drinking water class-action settlement affecting First Nations is set to change that. Beardy, the chief of Tataskweyak Cree Nation in northern Manitoba, says the construction of a new 40-kilometre pipeline and water treatment plant for her community is set to begin next spring, meaning Tataskweyak's six-year boil water advisory will be coming to an end.
The Government of Canada, acknowledging the long-standing water issues in First Nations communities, has introduced a new legislation, Bill C-61, known as the First Nations Clean Water Act. The announcement comes with the aim of ensuring clean and safe drinking water for First Nations for generations to come. “Created with First Nations, this legislation is the foundation of clean and safe drinking water for generations to come. It establishes the rights and supports that should have always been there for First Nations,” states Patty Hajdu Minister of Indigenous Services. “It creates the tools First Nations need to manage their water systems and ensure the water they draw from is safe. It holds the federal government accountable to provide sustainable funding so that communities never have to live with unsafe water. And it is thanks to the extensive expertise, work, and guidance of First Nations partners that this legislation will lead to a future where no one has to grow up without clean drinking water ever again.”
St. John's residents will be paying higher property and water taxes in 2024 as the city grapples with higher road maintenance costs and aging snow-clearing and garbage trucks. The residential mill rate is going up by 9.64 per cent, to 9.1 mills. The mill rate increase, plus a 3.4 increase in property assessments, means the average homeowners will see their property tax go up by just over $240 per year. Residential water taxes will go up by $5.
Another water treatment plant has been hacked over its use of Israel-made equipment. It happened last week in an east coast area of Ireland called Erris. About 180 residences were without water for two days when the hackers got past the systems’ firewall and shut a small utility. Last week I reported that a hacking group believed to be from Iran called CyberAv3ngers is going after utilities using equipment from Israeli companies.
The federal government's proposed new bill to set drinking water standards in First Nations is being met with mixed reactions. Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu introduced Bill C-61 on Monday in the House of Commons. The proposed law is intended to protect fresh water sources, create minimum national drinking water and wastewater standards in First Nations, and provide sustainable funding for maintaining water quality.
When the pandemic started, the province was testing the population and updating the number of COVID cases daily. But four years on, testing has stalled and the main way to get a snapshot of the COVID picture is through wastewater. Mark Servos is with the department of Biology in Canada and Research Chair in Water Quality Protection at the University of Waterloo.
The Indigenous Services Minister has tabled much-anticipated legislation to improve water quality in First Nations communities. “Created with First Nations, this legislation is the foundation of clean and safe drinking water for generations to come,” stated Minister Patty Hajdu. “It establishes the rights and supports that should have always been there for First Nations. It creates the tools First Nations need to manage their water systems and ensure the water they draw from is safe.”
It's a sight Andrew Arreak says he's never seen before in Pond Inlet: open water at a time when the sea ice should be thick enough to sled on. Some people are still going out in boats. Others are finding alternate ways of accessing the land, since the ice they rely on for hunting and fishing is now a month late forming. In the Arctic hamlet of about 1,600 people, high winds keep pushing the sea ice away from the community, Arreak said.
The Liberal government tabled much-anticipated legislation Monday that aims to improve water quality in First Nations communities, improve collaboration on water protection and codify a new First Nations-led commission. The long-promised bill, which Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu is touting as the result of immense collaboration and knowledge-sharing, would apply a new framework for source water, drinking water, wastewater and related infrastructure on First Nations land.
Bill C-61 is the next step to ensure First Nations have clean drinking water for generations to come. Everyone in Canada should have access to safe and clean drinking water. First Nations have long called for legislation that affirms their inherent rights, recognizes their stewardship in keeping water clean and meets First Nations needs. Effective legislation, a national regulatory regime, and First Nations-led institutions are essential to supporting sustainable access to clean, safe and reliable drinking water in First Nations communities.
Water covers 71% of the Earth’s surface, but good ol’ H2O is a much more precious resource than it appears. Less than 0.8% of Earth’s water is freshwater in lakes, rivers, or underground aquifers. And much of that already tiny fraction has been rendered unusable by pollution or is lost to poor management and inefficient agricultural practices. What’s worse, climate change and overexploitation of existing water resources mean that communities from California to Cambodia are struggling to provide safe water at an affordable price.
Joanne Dally, 63, says she doesn't know when she will be able to host her next dinner party — she hasn't had running water at home since mid-October because the well on her property, her only source of water, has run dry. "We have to go to relatives to shower, we have to haul our water in totes, go to the laundromat," said Dally, who has lived in her home, a few kilometres west of the Fraser River near Prince George, B.C., since 2013.
The purest water in the world, bubbling up to the surface between Waverley and Elmvale, will be featured on TVO's The Water Brothers episodes Thursday and Sunday nights. The episode entitled 'The World's Oldest Water' has hosts Tyler and Alex Mifflin looking into not only the oldest water in the world found near Timmins, but also the purest water and that's right here in north Simcoe.
Students living in a new downtown McMaster University residence are demanding action from the university in Hamilton after ongoing construction has caused a slew of problems from electrical outages, to a bug infestation, to rashes and gastrointestinal issues from contaminated water. In one instance, the tenants’ group at 10 Bay St. says, a female student exited her shower to find a male construction worker in her kitchen.
A research facility at the University of Victoria is using new deep-sea droids to expand climate tracking in the northeast Pacific Ocean. Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) says five specialized data collecting tools, known as Argo floats, have been deployed to record conditions in the deepest parts of the northeast Pacific. Typically, an Argo float, which has a lifespan of four to five years, descends about two kilometres beneath the surface level for up to 10 days, then returns to the ocean surface to transmit data. It then dives back down again, repeating the process until it dies.
With a recent donation in Quebec, Labatt Breweries of Canada has donated more than a million cans of water to support communities with 24 distributions in seven provinces over 11 years. Established in 2012, Labatt's Canadian Disaster Relief Program was created to provide safe drinking water to Canadian communities experiencing disasters such as flooding, forest and wildfires, environmental spills, drought and ice storms that compromised a community's water supply.
As Alberta grapples with low rivers, dry fields and minimal snowpack, the provincial government is asking for help with its drought modelling for next year. Concerns about water levels are being echoed by watershed groups in the province, as a sustained period of drier-than-average conditions have taken a toll on reserves. The Alberta government recently issued a request for proposals to help conduct modelling throughout the winter, and to work with municipalities, farmers, water users and others to find ways to maximize the province's water supply in the South Saskatchewan River Basin.
