Freedom Road

This First Nation has a new highway and a water-treatment plant that's 'like our Stanley Cup'

This First Nation has a new highway and a water-treatment plant that's 'like our Stanley Cup'

People in Shoal Lake #40 First Nation are proud of what they've accomplished in recent years. The community in northwestern Ontario, near the Manitoba-Ontario border, built Freedom Road, connecting their once-isolated community to the Trans-Canada Highway, and completed a water-treatment plant that's helped them emerge from a 24-year boil-water advisory. This spring, the community was honoured by the Ontario Public Works Association with the Public Works Project of the Year for Small Municipalities and First Nations award for their new water-treatment plant.

Shoal Lake First Nation lifts 24-year boil water advisory, but there’s more to do: experts

Shoal Lake First Nation lifts 24-year boil water advisory, but there’s more to do: experts

Experts say Canada still has a long way to go. “It could be measured in years because not only is it the current boil water advisories as they exist, but we also need to make sure that the facilities that are operating remain safe and remain regulated and (are) operated properly,” said Dr. Graham Gagnon, director for the Centre for Water Resources Studies at Dalhousie University.

First Nation opens water treatment plant, ending decades-old drinking water advisory

First Nation opens water treatment plant, ending decades-old drinking water advisory

Shoal Lake 40 First Nation is welcoming clean, running water for the first time in nearly 25 years. The First Nation on the Manitoba-Ontario boundary is celebrating today the opening of its new water treatment plant, along with a new school. The federal government says a long-term boil-water advisory for the community, which was issued in 1998 and was one of the longest in Canada, has been lifted. The First Nation was cut off from the mainland more than a century ago during construction of an aqueduct that supplies Winnipeg with its drinking water.

Shoal Lake JV to build new water, wastewater system

Shoal Lake JV to build new water, wastewater system

SHOAL LAKE, ONT. — A joint venture (JV) involving Shoal Lake 40 Contractors LP and Sigfusson Northern Ltd. has been named the winning bidder in a competition to earn the right to construct a new water and wastewater system for Shoal Lake First Nation in northwestern Ontario. Indigenous Services Canada is contributing $33 million for the project, which includes construction of a water treatment plant, reservoir, raw water intake structure and lift station as well as the installation of watermain connections and fire hydrants, stated a Sept. 6 release.

A century of water: As Winnipeg aqueduct turns 100, Shoal Lake finds freedom

A century of water: As Winnipeg aqueduct turns 100, Shoal Lake finds freedom

The taps to Winnipeg's drinking water were first turned on in April 1919, but as the city celebrated its engineering feat and raised glasses of that clear liquid, another community's fortunes suddenly turned dark. Construction of a new aqueduct plunged Shoal Lake 40 into a forced isolation that it is only now emerging from, 100 years after Winnipeg's politicians locked their sights on the water that cradles the First Nation at the Manitoba–Ontario border. "The price that our community has paid for one community to benefit from that resource, it's just mind-boggling," said Shoal Lake 40 Chief Erwin Redsky.