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.
Today, Gudie Hutchings, Federal Minister of Rural Economic Development, on behalf of Marie-Claude Bibeau, Federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, and Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister David Marit, announced $485 million for strategic agricultural initiatives in Saskatchewan under the new five-year Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (Sustainable CAP).
Examples of the individual research projects being funded include exploring the diversity of Fusarium root to species infecting pulse crops, insect response to climate change and ag inputs across the prairies, economic salinity remediation strategies for agriculture water using innovative desalinization minerals and a nutritionally balanced pulse-oilseed protein-based beverage.
The governments of Canada and Saskatchewan continue to invest in infrastructure during this unprecedented time to enhance citizens' quality of life, meet the needs of communities, and create jobs to address the impact of COVID-19. Today, the Honourable Jim Carr, Minister and Special Representative for the Prairies, on behalf of the Honourable Catherine McKenna, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, and the Honourable Don McMorris, Saskatchewan's Minister of Government Relations, announced more than $5.3 million in federal-provincial funding to improve the Town of Outlook's potable water infrastructure. The project is funded under the Green Infrastructure stream of the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.
