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.
Almost three weeks after municipal authorities of a small northeastern B.C. community announced that a local water treatment plant had stopped working, hundreds of residents have been asked not to drink tap water or use it in cooking. On Tuesday, the District of Hudson's Hope — about 86 kilometres west of Fort St. John, home to more than 800 people — and the Northern Health Authority issued a "do not consume" order for potable water that the district processes and distributes.
Residents across the Kenora and Kiiwetinoong ridings will have access to clean water for potentially the first time in their homes, after $33 million was pledged for water treatment plant upgrades and repairs across northwestern Ontario last week. Kiiwetinoong MPP Sol Mamakwa says the announcement between the federal and provincial governments, which includes funding from the communities themselves, has been a long-time coming.
