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.
Taxpayers will find out in two months how much extra it will cost to fix the mechanical problems and lead-tainted water on board the navy’s new Arctic and offshore patrol ships. But Procurement Canada’s top bureaucrat has reassured parliamentarians that costs on the multi-billion vessels are coming down, despite figures showing the price tag actually jumped another $780 million over the past year.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is billing the taxpayer roughly $500 per year for a product he has infamously referred to as a “drink box water bottle sorta thing.” The charge was included in a massive disclosure of prime ministerial household expenses obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. The five-member Trudeau family was found to rack up a taxpayer-funded grocery budget of approximately $55,000 per year — or roughly $28 per Trudeau, per day. That’s not all that different from the grocery budget accumulated by Trudeau’s predecessor. During his nine years in office, Conservative leader Stephen Harper’s annual family grocery budget averaged out to around $52,218.
Saltair taxpayers will pay less and receive more following the approval of a grant application for the Saltair water treatment expansion project. “I wanted to run up and down the streets knocking on everyone’s door to spread the amazing news,” noted Lynne Smith, Cowichan Valley Regional District director for Area G. An Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program – Green Infrastructure (Environmental Quality Program) grant will provide $6 million in funding.
Residents of a small Saskatchewan town can drink the water coming out of their taps for the first time in nearly nine years thanks to a new water treatment plant. Craik, population 400, has been facing a boil water advisory since August 2010, when the province found its old plant didn’t meet minimum disinfection standards. “Sometimes it was yellow and sometimes it was brown and sometimes there was dirt in it,” one resident recalled.
