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.
Leaders of small Newfoundland and Labrador towns say water in their communities is so unreliable that in some cases, it has made residents ill. While government says it's slowly working on fixes, there's no clear end for boil advisories in sight. Black Tickle, a community on Labrador's south coast, has been under a chronic boil order for years, says Todd Russell, president of the NunatuKavut community council. The unpotable water has meant widespread disease among the locals, he said.
It was a time of celebration and relief in Shoal Lake 40 First Nation on Wednesday morning, as the community that borders southeastern Manitoba and northwestern Ontario marked the opening of a new water treatment facility and the end of nearly 24 years without clean running water. But more than 30 other First Nations are still fighting for access to clean drinking water that most Canadians take for granted, including two in northern Manitoba that have been under long-term drinking water advisories for years.
Another factor in the chief's decision is the fact that the plant still isn't running at capacity. It's designed to produce 3.8 litres of water per second for each of its two treatment lines, but the most it can produce now is less than three litres, according to project progress reports obtained by CBC News. "The amount would still meet the [community's] need," said Lalita Bharadwaj, a professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Saskatchewan who studies access to safe drinking water in First Nations. "But it raises concerns about the sustainability of the system, and operations and management of the system." Bharadwaj said there should be four operators working at the plant — two who are certified and two others from the local community who can receive training, which she said could take years.
It is to our national shame that many First Nations communities still don’t have access to potable water. That we have known about the problem for decades and failed to address it is a stain on our national character — one that Justin Trudeau and his Liberals made a lot of hay about addressing during the 2015 election campaign. “A Canadian government led by me will address this as a top priority because it’s not right in a country like Canada. This has gone on for far too long,” Trudeau said at the time, pledging to end all boil-water advisories on reserves within five years.
The Liberal government will miss a target it set during the 2015 federal election campaign to lift all long-term drinking water advisories in First Nations by March 2021 — in some cases by several years — according to a survey of communities by CBC News. More than a dozen First Nations said projects to end long-term drinking water advisories won't be completed by the promised deadline.
