Nicole Hancock
Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony ...

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.

Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony to heal Chedoke Creek

industrial development

How Indigenous-led conservation could help Canada meet its land and water protection targets

How Indigenous-led conservation could help Canada meet its land and water protection targets

In the far northwest of Manitoba, the Seal River flows 260 kilometres through the thick boreal forest into Hudson Bay. It's the only major river in northern Manitoba without any dams. No roads lead to the river, and there's only one human settlement in the river's watershed. That community, the Sayisi Dene, is leading an initiative along with neighbouring Dene, Cree and Inuit communities to protect the 50,000 square kilometres of the watershed. That's an area of untouched wilderness roughly the size of Nova Scotia, which would be protected from industrial development if the community's proposal is accepted.

Alberta environment minister tells rural areas coal mining doesn’t threaten water

Alberta environment minister tells rural areas coal mining doesn’t threaten water

Alberta’s environment minister is trying to reassure rural municipalities in the province’s south that their water supply isn’t threatened by industrial development such as coal mines. Many municipalities have expressed concern about what effects the government’s plan to expand the coal industry would have on water supplies. Environment Minister Jason Nixon says despite changes to water allocation from rivers, environmental rules remain the same.

A TALE OF THREE WATERSHEDS: WHAT WE KNOW — AND DON’T KNOW — ABOUT THE HEALTH OF CANADA’S FRESHWATER

A TALE OF THREE WATERSHEDS: WHAT WE KNOW — AND DON’T KNOW — ABOUT THE HEALTH OF CANADA’S FRESHWATER

Canada is famously home to 20 percent of the world’s freshwater — but how well are we stewarding this supply? WWF-Canada recently reassessed the health of our country’s 25 watersheds to better understand how they’re responding to threats from pollution, habitat loss and climate change. Our 2020 Watershed Reports found that 26 per cent of Canadas’s 167 sub-watersheds received a score of Good or Very Good, which is good or very good news! But what’s bad, or possibly very bad, is that nearly 60 per cent of these sub-watersheds received no score at all because they remain Data Deficient. In other words, we just don’t know. This lack of data is concerning as we need a complete picture to determine which areas need dedicated efforts to protect our freshwater ecosystems.

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