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.
Keeping aquatic invasive species out of Jasper National Park is easy as long as every person cleans, drains and dries their watercraft after every outing. To drive home that message, Parks Canada is offering new summertime services including having staff rotating around several high-use water bodies to educate visitors on the risks and about what they can do.
The province's ban will prohibit the floating homes from staying overnight on public waterways. The restrictions will take effect on July 1, according to a regulation posted by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. The ban will only apply to what the province calls "floating accommodations," defined in the regulation as floating structures designed primarily for residential purposes and not primarily for navigation. Sailboats, houseboats, cabin cruisers or other traditional watercraft are not prohibited from overnight stays.
The taps to Winnipeg's drinking water were first turned on in April 1919, but as the city celebrated its engineering feat and raised glasses of that clear liquid, another community's fortunes suddenly turned dark. Construction of a new aqueduct plunged Shoal Lake 40 into a forced isolation that it is only now emerging from, 100 years after Winnipeg's politicians locked their sights on the water that cradles the First Nation at the Manitoba–Ontario border. "The price that our community has paid for one community to benefit from that resource, it's just mind-boggling," said Shoal Lake 40 Chief Erwin Redsky.
