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.
The clock has started on the environmental assessment process for Northern Pulp's proposal to restart its beleaguered pulp and paper mill in Nova Scotia's Pictou County. Last week, the company filed a registration document with the Nova Scotia Department of Environment and Climate Change, and on Tuesday the department formally registered the project. Now begins the process of a Class 2 environmental assessment — the more rigorous of the province's two environmental assessment options.
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.
"This investigation is going to open a can of worms," Quisess said. "We want Canadians to know the full story. We want Canadians to know how the tax dollars are used." Neskantaga's plant was built in 1993 and has never adequately treated and disinfected water. A long-term drinking water advisory was put in place on Feb. 1, 1995, less than two years after the plant was commissioned. It's been in effect ever since.
At the community's request, Indigenous Services Canada has replaced the top federal bureaucrat working with Neskantaga First Nation during its current state of emergency. Assistant deputy minister Joanne Wilkinson has taken over from Ontario regional director general Anne Scotton as the liaison between department officials and Neskantaga — a fly-in community about 450 km north of Thunder Bay, Ont., that has been under a boil-water advisory for 25 years.
Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller is preparing to launch a third-party investigation into the business practices of consultants and engineering companies hired to end Canada's longest-standing boil water advisory — a probe that could extend to other communities, CBC News has learned. "The problem is we have a system for delivering infrastructure that always goes with the lowest bidder," Angus said. "When you have a big-ticket item, like a water plant that's very expensive to build in a community, costs and corners get cut and that's the danger. Neskantaga has been a nightmare situation."
