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.
After years of discussion, the Atlantic First Nations Water Authority made history Monday by becoming the first Indigenous water utility in Canada. The transfer agreement was signed in Dartmouth, N.S., by Atlantic First Nations Water Authority (AFWNA) CEO Carl Yates, Potlotek First Nation Chief Wilbert Marshall, and federal Minister of Indigenous Services Patty Hajdu.
Rebecca Zagozewski, executive director of the Saskatchewan First Nations Water Association, said she has seen contractors save on costs when building water treatment plants on reserves by using obsolete parts and failing to include maintenance manuals, ventilation or chemical rooms, and bathrooms. “Engineering companies will put in their bids obviously as low as they can go,” said Zagozewski.
Atlantic region First Nations Chiefs and Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) have signed a framework agreement on a ground-breaking water utility that will oversee the drinking water and wastewater operations for over half of the First Nations population in the region. The agreement will transfer control and management of water and wastewater services for 15 Mi'kmaw and Wolastoqey communities from ISC to a single First Nations-led organization, and comes with a $2.5 million federal investment to get the water authority started on recruitment, training of staff and other operational costs.
Two Indigenous groups in the Atlantic region, the Mi'kmaq and Wolastoqiyik, are pitching a First Nations owned water authority to the federal government and First Nations. "We want to be able, at the end of the day, to turn on the tap and drink a glass of water," said Pictou Landing First Nation Chief Andrea Paul, one of the three current board members for the Atlantic First Nations Water Authority (AFNWA). "Some communities can't do that," she said.
