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.
It's a sight Andrew Arreak says he's never seen before in Pond Inlet: open water at a time when the sea ice should be thick enough to sled on. Some people are still going out in boats. Others are finding alternate ways of accessing the land, since the ice they rely on for hunting and fishing is now a month late forming. In the Arctic hamlet of about 1,600 people, high winds keep pushing the sea ice away from the community, Arreak said.
People in Sanirajak, Nunavut, are asked to keep their water at a rolling boil for at least one minute before using it. That's because total coliform bacteria has been found in the water system, and people could get sick from drinking tap water, according to the territory's Department of Health. People should boil any water used for drinking; preparing infant formulas, ice, juice, or meals; brushing teeth; and washing fruit and vegetables.
Two Toronto entrepreneurs say they have a solution to Iqaluit’s water supply needs: They’ll ship it in from Greenland. Fred Grootarz and Mark Albert want to use tankers to transport the water to Iqaluit’s port, where it would be stored year-round in electrically heated tanks. Albert calls the plan “a perfect fit” for Iqaluit.
The federal and Nunavut governments, as well as a group representing Inuit in the territory, are reviewing a massive plan to formally guide where, how and when land and water can be used in Canada's easternmost territory. The plan includes requirements for key wildlife habitat, contaminated sites, military facilities, community areas of interest and drinking water. It aims to balance economic, environmental and social needs.
Nooks Lindell was sitting in his home, having tea with his cousin, two summers ago when he saw a group of people working out on the land outside his home. He later learned the people were surveyors looking at the land as the potential site of Arviat's new fuel tank farm. "I was shocked. I was pretty upset," Lindell said of finding out about the potential tank farm location. Lindell lives in the home where he grew up in Arviat. He and his partner are raising their two young children there. "I spent the last two years at home being a stay at home ataata (father) … so I've spent a lot of time looking out the window right where they're going to put that tank farm," he said.
Some people living in Iqaluit's Brown Row condo units haven't had water or sewage services for several weeks. It was caused by heating issues and a city water shutdown that left some residents with frozen pipes during the coldest time of the year. Jaban David, the Brown Row condo board's president, said there is extensive damage to the condo units as a result.
A third-party review into the emergency response to Iqaluit’s 2021 water crisis has started. It’s one of two reviews expected to stem from the fuel crisis that led to a public order not to consume Iqaluit’s water for a two-month period between October and December 2021. The Department of Community and Government Services has contracted consultation firm DPRA Canada Inc. to conduct the review. DPRA began its work in mid-December, according to the department.
The City of Iqaluit says it lost between six and 10 million litres of water over the past three days as crews worked to address problems with its piped water system. The city shut down all water services on Saturday while crews repaired the water line near the Astro Hill complex where a major leak had been reported early that morning. Water was restored for most of the city by Saturday night, while a medical boarding home was hooked back up to the system by Sunday afternoon.
Nunavut's health minister says one of the primary goals of a third-party review of the Iqaluit water crisis is to restore the public's confidence in the government. In an interview with CBC News, John Main committed to releasing as much information to the public as possible when the review is complete — although there's still no timeline for when such a review will even begin.
The company is also seeking approval to store tailings in open pits that are no longer being used. The company says this would lower the ecological footprint since right now it removes water from tailings and stores the dry tailings at a tailings storage facility and then stores waste rock at a waste rock storage facility. "Storing tailings and waste rock in exhausted pits would reduce freshwater use and re-use spaces instead of impacting new ones," the company proposal says.
Nunavut's health department says it has not yet begun its third party review into last year's water crisis in Iqaluit. In October 2021, the city went nearly two months without clean tap water after hydrocarbons were detected in the city's water supply and ultimately traced to the water treatment plant. A "do not consume" order from territorial health officials was lifted in December, after a bypass had been set up at the plant.
One of the drivers of this trend is the Arctic warming effect, a phenomenon that occurs when sea ice and snow, which naturally reflect the sun's heat, melt into sea water. The water then absorbs more solar radiation and warms up. The consequences — longer ice-free seasons, unpredictable weather conditions and warmer waters — are felt at all levels of the Arctic ecosystem's food chain.
Complaints of a fuel-like smell coming from the water in this far-north Canadian city prompted do-not-consume orders in October 2021 and January 2022, limiting residents’ access to potable water and its hospital’s ability to sterilize equipment. A team of experts flown in from across Canada identified the sources of the petroleum hydrocarbon contamination and its path into the systems. Sending samples off to labs for testing was slow and costly due to the remote location and harsh winter, so the team worked with a local vendor to adapt existing technology to detect any contamination in real time along different points of the treatment process.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced $800 million in funding over seven years for large Indigenous-led conservation projects covering almost a million square kilometres of land. "Communities have been clear — safeguarding lands and waters will help build a strong future for generations to come," Trudeau said Wednesday. "As a government, our role is to listen and support that vision."
New Democrat parliamentarians are urging the federal Liberals to address what they say is corporate greed driving a cost-of-living crisis for northern and Indigenous communities. As record-high prices for food, fuel and heat ripple across the North, Ottawa can lighten the financial load by reforming its Nutrition North subsidy and cutting the GST from home heating, according to northern Manitoba MP Niki Ashton and Nunavut MP Lori Idlout.
An estimated 20,000 litres of fuel were spilled near the Meadowbank gold mine in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut after a loaded fuel tanker rolled over on an all-season road. In a news release on Tuesday, Agnico Eagle, Meadowbank Complex's owner, said it doesn't appear as though fuel has entered any freshwater body. It said the spill was reported on Monday. The road was closed as Meadowbank personnel implemented emergency spill measures and ongoing remediation action, the release said.
In the North, some mines risk leaking acid if the permafrost melts, while across Canada heavier rainfall will add strain to tailings dams and a lack of it could throw operations. While no strangers to extreme weather, the growing risks from climate change are forcing the mining industry to take a hard look at their methods and how to prepare for the worst. Many of the most prudent actions to minimize risk are, however, also more costly, meaning that while some have taken them on, not everyone has followed suit.
MLAs are reviewing the commissioner's 2021-2022 annual report in the legislature this week, on Monday and Tuesday. Information, Steele says, is crucial to all government work. "It's an important piece of everything to do with health, water quality, COVID and housing — to make sure that the people of the territory have the information they need to make up their minds about whether or not their government is doing a good job," he told CBC News Monday.
