People in Shoal Lake #40 First Nation are proud of what they've accomplished in recent years. The community in northwestern Ontario, near the Manitoba-Ontario border, built Freedom Road, connecting their once-isolated community to the Trans-Canada Highway, and completed a water-treatment plant that's helped them emerge from a 24-year boil-water advisory. This spring, the community was honoured by the Ontario Public Works Association with the Public Works Project of the Year for Small Municipalities and First Nations award for their new water-treatment plant.
Winnipeg River, already flowing at a record volume, slated to rise even higher
The Winnipeg River is flowing at a record volume in Manitoba because officials no longer have any other option to control flooding across a vast swath of northwestern Ontario and northern Minnesota. Flooding on the Winnipeg River, which is running at about 3.5 times its usual volume at this time of year, has already forced hundreds of people from their homes and washed out roads in Whiteshell Provincial Park. This is the result of inflows that are only expected to increase in the coming days, raising water levels up to two-thirds of a metre higher in some locations in Manitoba.