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Latest news about the Safe Drinking Water Team
The chief of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation is voicing his concern over yet another incident at the Kearl oilsands facility, located about a 90-minute drive north of Fort McMurray. In a statement issued Thursday, Chief Allan Adam said the Nov. 13 incident, involving water, has “once again impacted the environment on our traditional territories.”
Two decades of boil water advisories are over for Hiawatha First Nation after the completion of the first phase of the community’s new water treatment plant and distribution system. A grand opening was held earlier this week for the new plant and system situation in the First Nation located 30 kilometres south of Peterborough. Chief Laurie Carr says the system is a symbol of change for the community which has long advocated for better long-term solutions for boil-water advisories across Canada.
The former executive of a now-bankrupt mining company has been fined nearly $30,000 for environmental violations dating back to 2015 — an amount that has led to competing appeals from both sides. The charges follow a July 7 ruling from B.C. provincial court judge David Patterson, who said Benjamin Mossman was "actively or passively involved" in releasing excess zinc and other substances into woods and wetlands on Banks Island in Gitxaała First Nation territory. He was fined $29,994, according to the B.C. Conservation Officer Service, which led the joint investigation into the allegations in the initial stages.
A day after resigning as mayor of South Bruce Peninsula, Garry Michi has apologized for his comments about a local water treatment plant and people in the First Nation community in Ontario. "I deeply regret the words I used during a personal conversation and the subsequent impact they have had," said Michi in an email to CBC News.
The mayor of South Bruce Peninsula has resigned after he was caught on tape making racist comments about a nearby First Nation community, the Ontario town announced in a statement Tuesday. Garry Michi was recorded in an audio clip posted Friday by an anonymous individual questioning the federal government's decision to fund a water treatment plant on the Chippewas of the Nawash Unceded First Nation, also known as Cape Croker.
The First Nation that has been the source of Winnipeg's water for more than a century is suing the city and federal government, saying it's never been compensated for the harms suffered as a result of the city's water diversion system. When it was build in 1915, Winnipeg's aqueduct left Shoal Lake 40 isolated on a man-made island that was only accessible by ice road in the winter or barge in the summer.
Today, Northwest Angle No. 33's Angle Inlet community site held celebrations following the completion of a new water treatment plant for Angle Inlet. Chief Darlene Comegan and the Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Indigenous Services, announced today that with the water treatment plant complete, the community lifted three long-term drinking water advisories. The new centralized water treatment plant will provide reliable access to safe and clean drinking water for 100 residents. The water treatment plant meets the community's current needs and has the capacity to support future population growth over the next 20 years.
A First Nation on Vancouver Island has been legally barred from accessing one of its primary traditional food sources for the past 25 years, one of 154 shellfish harvesting sites closed by federal law in B.C. due to poor water quality. Some of those sites may be safe at times, a recent audit concluded, but they cannot be reopened because the federal agency in charge of testing those waters is understaffed. As a result, it devotes the majority of its limited resources to commercial harvesting areas. Shellfish beds First Nations have relied on for as long as their people have existed haven’t been given such high priority.
The Tsawout First Nation, located 20 kilometres north of Victoria, B.C., has declared an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) for 155 kilometres of ocean in its traditional waters. The area will be called QEN'T Marine Protected Area. QEN'T — pronounced "qwant" — means "to be looking after," "caring for," or "protecting something or someone" in SENĆOŦEN.
A new copper plaque on the boulevard along Broadway at Donald Street aims to educate Winnipeggers about the source of their drinking water and the community surrounding it — Shoal Lake 40 First Nation. "For years Winnipeg members, their citizens, were able to … turn on their tap," said Chief Kevin Redsky of Shoal Lake 40 First Nation at the unveiling of the plaque on Friday. The plaque pays tribute to Shoal Lake as the source of city water since 1919, when the Winnipeg aqueduct was completed. It explains how the project impacted the First Nation community and its relationship with water. "The 24-year boil water advisory, the sickness created bathing our own children, not being able to drink safe water," Redsky said.
