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.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is promising a new version of the Canada Water Act – and one of the improvements, he says, will be in the area of Indigenous rights. What that might mean for Indigenous people and communities is the focus of APTN Investigates: Liquid Law. Earlier this year at the fork of the Red and Assiniboine rivers in Winnipeg, the prime minister announced not just the updated Water Act – but a new agency to administer the regulation of water across the country.
Water levels on the Assiniboine River and shorelines may create unsafe conditions in the weeks to come as outflow from the Shellmouth dam is increased, Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure warns. The water level is expected to rise by one to two feet between the Shellmouth Dam and Brandon, 160 km southeast of the dam. The expected rise is the result of water released from the Shellmouth Reservoir to make room for spring's flow.
While communities in southern Manitoba battle flooding from the Red and Assiniboine rivers, people in the Interlake region are scrambling to save their homes from rising waters. Overland flooding from the Icelandic River, which runs into Lake Winnipeg, has washed out many roads and drenched fields in the municipality of Bifrost-Riverton. That municipality includes the community of Riverton and numerous hamlets, and surrounds the town of Arborg, about 100 kilometres north of Winnipeg.
The Portage Diversion will be closed Saturday due to declining water levels on the Assiniboine River but the floodway will remain open, according to a release by the province. A flood warning continues for the Red River from Emerson to the Red River Floodway channel inlet. The province said the Red River is expected to peak sometime between April 20-22 in Emerson with peak flows ranging from 20,000 and 24,300 cubic feet per second.
Visitors will find the path adorned with nearly 60 ice lanterns and movable chairs to relax in. "It kind of becomes a living room on the Assiniboine River," said Borys. She said she hopes the site also helps people's understanding of the health and well-being of the city's rivers and the need to protect water. Last winter, Borys and her group of friends shovelled out a serpentine maze in the snow at the site, decorating it with frozen sculptures and donated art.
Manitoba's extremely dry summer and unseasonably warm fall have led to historic lows for river and lake levels across the province. And that could mean trouble come spring — unless the province gets an enormous snowfall this winter, Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler says. "We haven't seen something like this since the 1930s, so we are very concerned," Schuler told host Shannah-Lee Vidal in a Friday interview on CBC's Radio Noon.
The banks of Winnipeg's Assiniboine River are a little bit cleaner after dozens of people helped pick up litter near Assiniboine Park on Saturday afternoon. The effort was part of the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, a long-standing national conservation initiative that teaches people about the harmful effects of shoreline and riverbank litter and encourages them to get involved in stopping it. Marc Brandson, curator of animal care at the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg, said the group focused on cleaning up any waste found along the banks of the Assiniboine that might eventually find its way into the river system.
New research by scientists at the University of Regina’s Institute of Environmental Change and Society shows that global warming is increasing levels of toxic algae detrimental to human health. The study was published online, in the journal Limnology and Oceanography Letters. “Our decade-long project establishes that global warming is increasing toxin levels in Prairie lakes,” says Dr. Peter Leavitt, a Canada Research Chair in Environmental Change and Society and a co-author of the study. “What is particularly worrying is that the chance of exceeding toxin levels that cause acute human health effects has increased to one in four in several lakes in southern Saskatchewan.”
