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.
Heavy rainfall on Friday and warmer temperatures through the week have parts of B.C.'s Interior and North preparing for the worst, as river levels and flood risk rise. Heavy rain is expected to continue through the weekend and temperatures are forecast to stay in the high teens. Hundreds of properties in B.C. are on evacuation alert, meaning residents should be prepared to leave at a moment's notice.
Residents at a seniors' complex operated by Manitoba Housing in Beausejour have been without hot water for a week, forcing people with visual and mobility challenges to heat water on stoves, then haul it elsewhere to wash themselves. "There are some people here that have no other choice but to bathe in their apartment," said Pat Sayer, who lives in Armstrong Manor, a 21-unit assisted living and independent living complex in the southeastern Manitoba town.
The Canada Research Chairs Program (CRCP) named four University of Calgary faculty members to its ranks on June 2, in recognition of their achievements and pursuit of research excellence. UCalgary is now home to 67 active Canada Research Chairs (CRCs). Three additional scholars have also had their CRCs renewed. “I’m pleased to see seven distinguished UCalgary scholars named Canada Research Chairs today,” says Dr. William Ghali, vice-president (research). “They all have ambitious research goals that will address society’s most pressing challenges. They will shape the future of their fields both through their research and their commitment to training the next generation.”
The devastation from the wettest Manitoba spring in over a century is still being catalogued, but officials say there are thousands of sites that need repairs, with a repair tab that is already into the tens of millions of dollars. "It will be a significant recovery program," Sarah Thiele, deputy minister of transportation and infrastructure, said during a news conference in Manitoba's Interlake region Thursday morning. She addressed media as a torrent of water rushed in the background, where a section of Highway 222 collapsed near Lakeside Road, north of Gimli.
Levels of morphine and methadone in Metro Vancouver’s wastewater were Canada’s highest in 2019 and 2020, a reflection of high crime rates and heroin use, says a recent Statistics Canada report. However, codeine levels in B.C. wastewater dropped in 2020 — possibly due the cancellation of surgeries during the pandemic and changes to drug regulations in British Columbia. The study said morphine is produced as a metabolite when the human body consumes heroin and shows up in wastewater.
Warming weather is causing rivers to rise in northern British Columbia, prompting Terrace to activate its emergency operations centre in anticipation of possible flooding. The city says activating the centre allows officials to begin flood preparations. Terrace is located on the edge of a broad area in northern B.C. covered by a high streamflow advisory that the River Forecast Centre issued on Wednesday.
Aecon Group Inc. (TSX: ARE) announced today that Graham-Aecon Joint Venture, a 50/50 consortium between Aecon and Graham Construction, has been awarded a $273 million design-build contract by the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Corporation (BPWTC) for the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant Renewal Project near Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Aecon's share of the contract will be added to its Construction segment backlog in the second quarter of 2022.
With rising water levels cutting off access to her home in Mine Centre, Ont., Rebecca Maclean has resorted to unusual measures to get to work every morning. Maclean has been using her kayak and canoe to access her vehicle, parked on the other side of the flooded road in front of her house. "This is not our first rodeo with flooding," said Maclean, who lives at Bear's Pass on Rainy Lake, east of Fort Frances. "We did have flooding in 2002, and at that point in time, I didn't have a child, so I just waded every day and the water was up ... to basically mid-thigh."
Winnipeggers will deal with flooded basements and sewage in the rivers for decades as the city's sewer improvement plan crawls along at its current pace. The city has increased the amount of rainfall, snowmelt and sewage its systems can hold by one percentage point since 2013. But that's right on track, one city councillor said.
Regina City Council has successfully passed a motion to develop a water utility rebate program and a high-efficiency water retrofits program for low-income senior citizens and people living with disabilities. The purpose of the programs is to improve property tax and water utility affordability for low-income households with senior citizens and low-income households with people living with disabilities.
Cheekbone Beauty is using lipgloss to call out lip service paid by federal governments when it comes to providing safe drinking water to Indigenous communities. The fact that reserves, First Nations and Indigenous communities have struggled for access to clean drinking water has been known for years, and fixing the issue has been a focal point of major party platforms in the last three federal elections.
Canadian engineering giant WSP Global Inc. is buying John Wood Group PLC’s environment business in a deal that cements its position as one of the world’s dominant players in sustainable development consulting. Montreal-based WSP said Wednesday it struck a definitive agreement to take over a business known as Environment & Infrastructure (E&I) from Aberdeen, Scotland-based Wood for US$1.8-billion, including a US$200-million deal-related tax benefit. The agreement adds 6,000 employees to WSP’s payroll from about 55,000 currently and sharpens its ability to bid on major environmental and infrastructure projects, particularly for federal government departments in the United States.
Some communities in southern Manitoba are still bracing for more flood impacts while others begin to assess the damage after another storm moved across the region this week. The town of Powerview-Pine Falls has put up barricades to protect its water treatment plant, deputy mayor Lorie Finkbeiner told CBC News. The rural municipality of St. Clements, which held an emergency meeting on Tuesday after Environment Canada issued rainfall and wind warnings across much of southern Manitoba, had no report of damage around the southern basin of Lake Winnipeg, said emergency co-ordinator Tyler Freeman.
This month of The Catch features stories from our partners in the Great Lakes News Collaborative. The collaborative’s investigation of the cost of water in the Great Lakes region was the focus of the latest episode. Toronto-based journalist Andrew Reeves discusses a piece he wrote for Great Lakes Now about the history and current issues in Canadian water infrastructure. Similarly to the United States, Canada’s water system saw a substantial drop in funding in the decades after World War II. However, in 2000, when a drinking water tragedy hit the city of Walkerton, Ontario, officials took action and began to invest in infrastructure and safety.
At the May 26 regional board meeting, qathet Regional District (qRD) approved grant applications under the Canada Community-Building Fund. The first is to sponsor an application from the Gillies Bay Improvement District for a water system infrastructure upgrade/expansion. The second is to sponsor an application from the Van Anda Improvement District for a water system infrastructure upgrade.
Ruby St. Amand, a resident of Inuvik, N.W.T., said she's never seen the water this high. St. Amand has lived at her camp about 10 kilometers northwest of Inuvik since 1995. While she said they have managed flooding in the past, they've always been left with land above water. "This year, [we were] housebound," she told Loren McGinnis, host of CBC Radio's The Trailbreaker. "We have a little 12-foot boat tied up right to our steps."
Peltier says world leaders are always shocked and surprised when they hear her describe the water situation for First Nations in Canada. She says Canada is viewed by the outside world as a safe, rich country but feels First Nations people are treated like “animals.” Peltier says it seems to be ok for First Nations to go 20 years without clean drinking water but if that were to happen in any Canadian city, it would result in a state of emergency, that would be handled quickly.
In one of Ontario's newest electoral ridings, residents hope whichever party forms the next provincial government will fix a longstanding sense of neglect and address a wide range of issues disproportionately felt in the far north. Kiiwetinoong — which means north in Ojibway — is the largest riding in Ontario by geographic area, but one of the smallest in terms of population. It was one of two new ridings created for the 2018 election, and the majority of the population is Indigenous.
When I was teaching political science at Langara College in Vancouver, some of the most memorable events were the half dozen teleconferences Noam Chomsky did with my students. During one such discussion of international trade treaties in 2012, Chomsky singled out the work of Maude Barlow, then chair of the Council of Canadians, as being instrumental in defeating the proposed “corporate bill of rights” known as the Multilateral Agreement on Investment.
According to disturbing reports out of Niagara Falls, New York, millions of gallons of untreated sewage and other wastewater poured into the Lower Niagara River this past weekend during a power outage and pump failure. The Buffalo News reports that Niagara Falls’ problematic wastewater treatment system failed both Saturday and Sunday, according to information provided by a state-automated emergency alert system. Although there was no unusual rainfall in the area lately, wet weather and pump failure were given as the reasons that six millions gallons of untreated wastewater went into the river on Saturday.
