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.
Barrie’s residential tenants owe the city more than $323,000 in water and wastewater billing arrears. A recent report to City of Barrie council broke down the cost of running a decade-old municipal water billing program intended to make property owners fully responsible for any unpaid charges incurred by their tenants.
Strong winds could cause waves and high water levels along the southern basins of Lake Manitoba and areas around Lake Winnipeg beginning on Wednesday. Affected areas include the western shoreline near Gimli, and Victoria Beach on the east side of Lake Winnipeg. Northwest winds up to 55 km/h will develop Wednesday afternoon and last until early morning on Thursday, and could raise water levels by more than five feet, Manitoba's Hydrologic Forecast Centre advised.
Resort owner Amy Vereb says she will be one of many people in the Whiteshell staying behind to protect their properties from rising floodwaters after an expanded evacuation order goes into effect Tuesday. "There's lots of us out here that this is all we have, and I just don't think that people realize that," said Vereb, who owns Otter Falls Resort. "This isn't just cottage country."
The massive floods in British Columbia in November 2021 demonstrated the devastation that natural disasters can cause in Canada. Prior to 2010, it was rare for annual insured losses from natural disasters in Canada to exceed $1 billion, but now insured losses of $3 billion are not uncommon. Canada is expected to become wetter, stormier, warmer and to experience more severe connective storms and wildfires. The Insurance Institute of Canada forecasts that annual insured losses could increase to $5 billion within the next 10 years.
Flooding has surpassed forest fires as the top cause of property damage in Canada in the past several years, costing property owners more than $1 billion in losses each year, according to government figures. Despite the threat, a recent study has revealed that an overwhelming majority of Canadians living in high-risk regions are not only unprepared to deal with the impact of floods, but they are also unaware of the potential danger.
A Canadian snowbird who spends her winters in Florida said was shocked to find out the water bill for her Toronto home was $5,500 while she was away. Carol Burbridge has a home in Toronto but spends her winters at her condo in Florida. She hired someone to inspect her home twice a week while she’s away and that's why she was surprised when she got the massive bill. “I'm a senior citizen on a pension and I was shocked," Burbridge told CTV News Toronto. "They said it was probably a running toilet and I said 'I don't know I wasn't there.'"
Rural communities near Prince Albert want to turn the taps on a $45 million water project. The Town of Shellbrook and the RM of Shellbrook have struck a steering committee with the Prince Albert Rural Water Utility (PARWU), spending $60,000 on studying a new water treatment plant with connecting pipelines to the communities, according to its terms of reference. “I really believe that building a water treatment plant will open the door to other communities to get good water,” noted Brent Miller, who is the steering committee chair and a Town of Shellbrook councillor.
On Oct. 20, 2018 the citizens of the Cowichan Valley voted for establishing the Drinking Water and Watershed Protection Service Establishment Bylaw (#4202). We thought that this bylaw would be used to protect our water supplies. It has been known for many years that the wells at three commercial establishments on Fisher Road, Cobble Hill had nitrate levels greatly exceeding the Health Canada Drinking Water Guidelines. These wells and surrounding CVRD monitoring wells have been monitored by a number of agencies, including the CVRD, in the past. The Cobble Hill Aquifer Interagency Task Group (CHAITG) was established to deal with this nitrate contamination and this Task Group commissioned Western Water Associates Ltd. (WWAL) to carry out a review of past studies. Surprisingly, this review did not review aquifer nitrite levels, only nitrate levels. Nitrite is a bigger concern than nitrate since nitrite can convert the oxygen-carrying hemoglobin to methemoglobin which does not carry oxygen. Thus, nitrite can cause tissue oxygen deficiency which is particularly problematical for infants and children since it can stunt their mental and physical growth.
