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.
Elgersma moved to the city in 1999 and began work as a lifeguard at the swimming pool at the Frobisher Inn, then worked her way up into youth programming and to director of recreation. In the four years Elgersma held the position as CAO, the city saw a number of disasters, like when Iqaluit's biggest store, Northmart, caught fire, and several water emergencies. "There's definitely been some some challenges," she said.
Nunavut MP Lori Idlout is calling for $180 million from the federal government to “end the water emergency in Iqaluit.” The government should “fix an issue of basic human rights … as the federal government would for any other major Canadian city,” Idlout wrote in a Friday letter to federal Infrastructure and Communities Minister Dominic LeBlanc. Idlout didn’t say exactly what the money would be used for, but mentioned Mayor Kenny Bell’s recent statements that the city needs a new water source and treatment plant.
“You can imagine how terrible it is for me. I was out there, trusting the science, telling people that they should be drinking the water. I was drinking the water, my kids were drinking the water, you know, we’re bathing in it.”— Iqaluit Mayor Kenny Bell on initially telling residents that the city’s tap water was safe, when it was later found to be contaminated with fuel
The City of Iqaluit’s recreation staff are back at the Iqaluit Aquatic Centre and the gym is open after they were reassigned on Dec. 1 to help with the water emergency. It remains unclear when the city will make other moves to return to normalcy, following a water emergency that lasted nearly two months, caused by the discovery of diesel fuel in the city’s water system. During that time, Iqalummiut were under a do-not-consume water advisory due to fuel contamination. On Dec. 10, the Government of Nunavut lifted that advisory.
Iqaluit Mayor Kenny Bell says the reported "unbearable" fuel smell from the city's water treatment plant on Oct. 8 was from repair work on the fuel line for the water plant's boiler. Government of Nunavut emails obtained by CBC News through an access to information request show staff from the Nunavut Health and Environment departments inspected the water treatment plant four days before the government of Nunavut's "do not consume" order was issued on Oct. 12.
It was late September when Adamee Itorcheak, a 56-year-old resident of Iqaluit - the capital of Canada's northernmost and sparsely populated territory of Nunavut - noticed something was wrong with his water. "The kitchen sink was the first indicator," said Mr Itorcheak, recalling a chemical smell coming from the water. Mr Itorcheak, an indigenous Inuk, is one of the approximately 7,700 Iqaluit residents who have been left without potable water for over a month. It took numerous complaints of suspicious odours to get officials to confirm that the city's water supplies were contaminated with fuel. Since a state of emergency was declared on October 12, Iqaluit's residents have been warned that local water supplies are unsafe to drink or cook with. The water was so contaminated that officials warned that it wouldn't be safe even after boiling.
Iqaluit's city council voted unanimously Tuesday to provide a water rebate for residents. Nearly 8,000 residents were ordered not to drink the tap water when fuel was discovered in one of the city's two water tanks at its water treatment plant earlier this month. The 100 per cent rebate was proposed by Mayor Kenny Bell. It will cost the city over $965,000 in revenue for the month of October.
Iqaluit residents could get a break on their water bills as they continue to deal with fuel contamination that's prevented them from being able to drink their tap water. Mayor Kenny Bell says in a social media post that he asked city staff for a "request for decision" on a water rebate ahead of this coming Tuesday's council meeting. Bell posted the resulting document on Saturday, which calls for a full rebate for the month of October for customers who receive their water via the city's pipes, as well as those who receive water from trucks.
