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.
A New Brunswick tourist destination is getting some help fixing its water supply. Fundy Albert, which includes Alma next to Fundy National Park, is getting $12 million to upgrade its aging water infrastructure. This comes after years of boil-water advisories in the community, including one that lasted from July to October.
The Halifax regional council will officially ask the province to buy a group of flood-prone Bedford properties. On Tuesday, council approved a motion from Bedford-Wentworth Coun. Tim Outhit to have Mayor Mike Savage write to Premier Tim Houston and ask for a provincial buyout program for Union Street properties damaged during July's extreme flooding. Outhit said these homes, which are all in a flood plain, are ones he's visited many times over the years as they've been damaged again and again by water.
A day after resigning as mayor of South Bruce Peninsula, Garry Michi has apologized for his comments about a local water treatment plant and people in the First Nation community in Ontario. "I deeply regret the words I used during a personal conversation and the subsequent impact they have had," said Michi in an email to CBC News.
As the city of Montreal looks for solutions for its aging, leaky water infrastructure, Mayor Valérie Plante has made it clear that residential water meters are not an option. In theory, meters could be used to charge each household for consumption, thus encouraging people to use less and reduce the strain on a system that is essentially hemorrhaging drinking water.
Through this investment, the Town of Kentville will install new water distribution pipes, sanitary sewer collection pipes and a stormwater management system as well as replace an existing water tank and treatment plant under the future Donald E. Hiltz Connector Road, which will connect the Kentville Business Park to Prospect Avenue. This investment will increase capacity to treat and manage wastewater and stormwater while opening up new land for to build housing in Kentville.
On a sunny Tuesday evening in Fort Simpson, N.W.T., Derek and Julia Erasmus cook up a dinner of waffles and sausages as their two young daughters play outside. Watching them, you wouldn't know just how difficult the past two years have been. They were one of 10 families who lost their house when the community flooded in 2021. "It's kind of just a huge life-changing event," Derek said. "We kind of thought we were going to retire in that house some day … then those plans were all gone after that."
Today, Tim Louis, Member of Parliament for Kitchener—Conestoga, and His Worship Gregg Davidson, Mayor of the Township of Mapleton, announced over $5 million in joint funding towards the design and construction of a new pumping station to replace the Drayton Sewage Pumping Station. The project will also consist of installing new sanitary system connections, called forcemains, to the existing wastewater collection system, and constructing an overflow storage facility. These upgrades will allow the system to accommodate higher volumes of water during storms and prevent sewage discharges.
The City of Corner Brook says it's paying significantly more for water treatment than it did a year ago. Mayor Jim Parsons says the cost of the multiple chemicals used in the treatment process have all increased by about 40 per cent compared with last year. Some have increased by more than 50 per cent. "We're used to seeing price increases throughout the COVID thing. We've noticed the supply is not where it used to be, so prices go up," said Parsons in a recent interview.
A week after he is sworn in, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe will meet with Premier Doug Ford and Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark Tuesday at Queen's Park. They will have no shortage of issues to discuss. In a memo to council members sent Thursday afternoon, the mayor said he plans to talk about "ongoing pandemic-related pressures — including reduced transit ridership, the Social Services Relief Fund, and the need for recovery assistance resulting from the May 2022 derecho [storm]."
Head said he understands what it's like to live in poverty in Winnipeg — he has his whole life. He's frustrated that at his age, he's still been unable to escape it. He's been out of a job since mid-2021, and is still searching for one. The latest challenge he's facing is a water shutoff at the Furby Street house he currently rents. He and his roommate collect water in rain buckets to flush the toilet, and he has a hose attached to his neighbour's water line that allows him to use their water sparingly.
Residents, environmentalists and the mayor of Leamington, Ont., say homes and businesses are at severe risk while Ottawa considers an application for millions of dollars to help protect the Hillman Marsh Conservation Area on the Point Pelee peninsula against Lake Erie flooding. Wayne King, founder of the Leamington Shoreline Association, says immediate action is needed to prevent the possibility of destructive flooding in the southwestern Ontario community. "There's 500 homes and businesses out there that would be under water," he said.
Homes in Carmacks, Yukon, that use the village's wastewater treatment plant are now under an evacuation alert as water levels on the Yukon River continue to rise. The plant is at risk of being overwhelmed, and the village doesn't know how much longer it can last, Mayor Lee Bodie said on Sunday. "There may be an evacuation order coming any day," Bodie said.
With the help of volunteers, staff at Resilience Montreal were able to clean while still welcoming about 300 of their clients and serving them breakfast. "It makes a challenging operation more challenging still," Chapman said of Thursday's flooding. According to him, it was Resilience Montreal's fourth flood in the last three years. Eric Hammel, a resident of Montreal's Verdun borough, said his street has been flooded once a year for the last three years. "These are things you don't expect from a city like Montreal," he said. "It's stressful because you anticipate damages if things get worse."
One of the municipalities most affected by an oil spill from Algoma Steel on the St. Mary's River does not yet know when it will be able to reopen its water treatment plant. Lynn Watson, mayor of the Township of Macdonald, Meredith and Aberdeen Additional, which includes the village of Echo Bay, said they shut down the water treatment plant's intake last Thursday, as soon as Algoma Steel alerted them of the oil spill.
Federal, provincial and municipal governments have come together in eastern P.E.I. for a major expansion of the water and sewer system. The $4.7-million project will extend the system about 2.5 kilometres from the old border of Montague into the old community of Brudenell up to MacDonald Road. The amalgamation of a group of communities to create Three Rivers in 2018 was key to getting the project off the ground, said Mayor Ed MacAulay.
Officials say they're still monitoring water levels along the Gatineau River but don't believe it will flood in the immediate Gatineau, Que., area in the short term. Many of the city's residents were bracing for water levels to surpass the area's flooding threshold, but on Friday officials downgraded the emergency alert level, saying they were now simply monitoring the situation.
On Thursday, Iqaluit city councillors heard a report from consultants who explained just how an aging fuel tank contaminated the city's water supply, and what steps it needed to take to fix the problem. Ian Moran, a water treatment process design engineer with WSP engineering firm, explained how the WSP team worked to find the "fingerprint" of petroleum hydrocarbons detected in October and again in January. The City of Iqaluit hired the firm in October, when Iqaluit residents reported a strong fuel smell in their drinking water. A state of emergency stemming from undrinkable tap water was declared Oct. 12, and would go on to last nearly two months. Five weeks later, residents again reported smelling fuel in the water, leading to a nine-day boil water advisory.
Josie Osborne seems careful with her words as she talks about her new job. The former mayor of Tofino, turned MLA, is heading up the new B.C. Ministry of Land, Water and Resource Stewardship and is the minister responsible for fisheries. But through her political composure are glimpses of a lifestyle associated with the little west coast community on Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation territory — she lives on ten acres with her husband, dog, three goats and chickens and works out of a brightly coloured tiny house office.
A letter from Rankin Inlet, Nunavut Mayor says the community urgently needs its water and sewer infrastructure replaced. MLA for Rankin Inlet North-Chesterfield Inlet, Alexander Sammurtok, tabled the letter in the legislature on March 9. The letter from Mayor Harry Towtongie says the utilidor system has reached critical capacity and has caused council to delay and even stop developments in the community.
