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.
With a recent donation in Quebec, Labatt Breweries of Canada has donated more than a million cans of water to support communities with 24 distributions in seven provinces over 11 years. Established in 2012, Labatt's Canadian Disaster Relief Program was created to provide safe drinking water to Canadian communities experiencing disasters such as flooding, forest and wildfires, environmental spills, drought and ice storms that compromised a community's water supply.
New Brunswick is making changes to disaster financial assistance when it comes to payouts and buyouts. Public Safety Minister Kris Austin said that from 2014 to 2020, disaster assistance payouts in New Brunswick totalled around $335 million. The province is responsible for $76 million of that figure, the rest is covered by the federal government, he said. Speaking at a news conference this week, Austin said changes needed to be made because the government "cannot afford to continue with business as usual" as the frequency and intensity of weather events continues to increase.
When the Trans-Canada Highway was washed out by flooding last November, First OnSite Restoration Ltd.’s Jim Mandeville had to fly into Abbotsford to help with disaster relief. “This was a first. It’s something that we really hadn’t considered as part of a flood,” Mandeville, senior vice-president of large loss, said about the damage to one of Canada’s most important roadways. “That certainly made things a bit more difficult, because a lot of heavy equipment, a lot of resources that come into and out of the Lower Mainland have to go across that Trans-Canada Highway.”
Pius Gartner says he had to take off his shoes and pants so he could enter his home without getting them soaked last Monday. His corner-lot property became waterfront temporarily when parts of Saskatoon were pummelled by torrential rain. "Every time it rains heavy this corner floods, but this time it was 14 inches above my back door, so she was tough to hold back the water," he said, noting the water poured in through his basement windows and clothes-dryer vent.
