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.
B.C.’s opposition parties want the government to extend — for a second time — an approaching groundwater licensing deadline, warning of a looming crisis for local farms and small businesses. “We are just deeply concerned,” said Shirley Bond, the interim leader of the BC Liberal Party, in an interview. “We want them to extend the deadline, but additionally we want them to do a better job of getting the information out there and finding people who haven’t registered and help.”
Prince Edward Island's Green Party is calling on the provincial government to immediately make residential water testing free. Opposition environment critic Hannah Bell says the costs of getting the tests done as often as it's recommended, quickly adds up. "Just for your basic water quality [test] which looks at bacteria in water, it's $95 plus HST, and if you want to add on chemical testing, it's another $45 plus HST," she said.
A running list of specific promises announced by the Liberals, Conservatives, NDP, Greens and People’s party since the official start of the federal election campaign on Aug. 15. Invest $1 billion over 10 years to restore and protect large lakes and river systems. Establish and fully fund a Canada Water Agency. Invest $37.5 million over six years for freshwater research at the International Institute for Sustainable Development’s Experimental Lakes Area. End all drinking water and boil water advisories.
Opposition Green MLA Lynne Lund has asked the province to commit to an interim moratorium on large holding ponds used for irrigation. Lund raised the issue in the legislature Tuesday, saying she'd become aware of a new water holding pond for agriculture being built in Queens County. She said she's been told the pond will require several wells to fill it, arguing it will have the same effect as a high capacity well.
In Canada's largest city, raw sewage flows into Lake Ontario so often, Toronto tells people they should never swim off the city's beaches for least two days after it rains. Across the country in Mission, B.C., a three-decade-old pipe that carries sewage under the Fraser River to a treatment plant in Abbotsford is so loaded operators can't even slip a camera inside it to look for damage. If that pipe bursts, it will dump 11 million litres of putrid water from area homes and businesses into a critical salmon habitat every day it isn't fixed.
