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.
Residents in Rouleau and Wilcox and surrounding rural municipalities can enjoy clean, quality drinking water now that construction of a new water treatment plant is finished. More than a dozen people — including both mayors, municipal officials, provincial dignitaries, and project contractors — gathered in Rouleau on Sept. 28 for a grand opening ceremony to celebrate the $10.6 million regional water system project.
Construction has officially begun on the $325.6-million Buffalo Pound water treatment plant renewal project. A number of MLAs, mayors, board members, employees and more were in attendance for the first shovels hitting the ground in Buffalo Pound Monday. The plant will serve communities such as Regina, Moose Jaw, Grand Coulee, Pense, Bethune and several other communities with clean drinking water. In total, more than 260,000 people in the area will access the water. “This treatment plant has served the residents of Regina and Moose Jaw with safe, high-quality drinking water and frankly we don’t exist without it,” said Regina Mayor Sandra Masters.
A group of federal Liberal MPs are asking their government to invest up to $400 million to combat the “health crisis” of lead-contaminated drinking water which was exposed in communities across the country by a national investigation by 10 media outlets, including Global News and the Toronto Star. An open letter written by Hamilton MP Bob Bratina says the government “can and must” direct a portion of infrastructure spending designed to revitalize the post-COVID-19 economy into the “national public health crisis we face in the form of lead-contaminated drinking water.”
People from both sides of the Ottawa River took to the water to protest the construction of a nuclear waste disposal site at the Chalk River power plant. More than a dozen boats took part in the demonstration to say the federal government should heed their warnings about the potential dangers the dump presents for the health of the water.
