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

maintain water levels

Fishery shut because Nova Scotia Power using all the water, Gaspereau fishermen say

Fishery shut because Nova Scotia Power using all the water, Gaspereau fishermen say

Peter Croft, a director of the Gaspereau Squarenet Fishermen’s Association, said that the low water levels are caused by a combination of Nova Scotia Power’s operation of a hydroelectric dam upstream and a combination of low snowfall during the winter and little spring rain. “In the fall and winter (Nova Scotia Power) actually drains the lakes fairly low, generating power,” said Croft. “What they hope for is to recoup water by snowmelt or heavy rains before we fish in the spring. They did all the draining this year but then we didn’t get enough water back (from rain and snowmelt).”

Alberta regulator reconsiders Fort Hills oilsands approval after critical report

Alberta regulator reconsiders Fort Hills oilsands approval after critical report

The plan proposes a complicated set of wells and pumps to control and monitor water levels and chemistry. But its centrepiece is a wall, nearly 14 kilometres long and between 20 and 70 metres deep, which is intended to protect the unmined wetland while the rest is drained and excavated. “It is untested,” said Lorna Harris, an ecologist specializing in peat with the Wildlife Conservation Society, who has worked at universities in Canada and England. “We do not have any certainty that it will work.”

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