SPECIAL FOCUS: COLD CLIMATES AND REMOTE LOCATIONS
Water treatment plant offers growing future to northern Ontario First Nation By Craig A. Baker
F
or decades, many remote, northern First Nations in Ontario have struggled to develop their water treatment systems and other infrastructure. Even if they do have treatment systems, they are often not to current provincial design standards and regulations, leaving the community with boil water advisories. In recent years, the federal government has demonstrated a commitment to ending long-standing boil water advisories in Canada’s Indigenous communities, investing in the futures of these communities. When the members of Shoal Lake #40 First Nation began drawing safe water from their newly opened water treatment plant in September 2021, it marked a historic milestone for the people living on the reserve. Located on the Manitoba/ Ontario border, on the shores of Shoal Lake, the community went 24 years without safe drinking water. The construction of a new water treatment facility is about a lot more than simply clean water. This piece of life-sustaining infrastructure offers the 650 members of the Shoal Lake #40 First Nation hope for a real future. What sets Shoal Lake apart from the many other communities with similar stories is that their community became isolated on a man-made island so that nearby Winnipeg could develop its municipal water supply. In 1915, a portion of the Shoal Lake #40 reserve was expropriated by Canada to allow the City of Winnipeg to source its municipal water from Shoal Lake, located almost entirely in Ontario. In the process, the inhabitants of the reserve were forced to relocate their settlement east, where the Winnipeg water works diversion canal turned their peninsula into an island. Their community was cut off from the mainland. For a century, the political sensitivity of Winnipeg’s untreated water supply inhibited normal activities on the reserve and in 1989 many constraints were formalized under the terms of an agreement with the City of Winnipeg, the Province of Manitoba, and the Government of Canada. Under the formalized agreement, Canada finally installed pipes, pumps, and indoor plumbing on the Shoal Lake #40 reserve throughout the 1990s. However, the systems approved by Indian Affairs, as the department was named at that time, failed to meet Ontario’s drinking water quality guidelines requiring filtration of surface waters. In 1997, the community and the neighbouring community of Iskatweizaagegan First Nation suffered an outbreak of cryptosporidiosis, a potentially fatal illness caused by a single-celled intestinal parasite resistant to chlorination. As a result, a boil water advisory was issued on all the recently built 38 | February 2022
In the design of the system itself, there was opportunity to incorporate creative problem solving.
systems. It lasted 24 years. First Nations Engineering Services Ltd., a 100% Aboriginal-owned engineering firm, became part of this story in 2005, when the community contracted them to design a water treatment plant that met the standards of the day. It took three attempts—in 2007, 2012 and finally in 2019—before a budget was approved to construct the plant. The history of Shoal Lake #40 First Nation and their struggle for clean water gives context to why infrastructure is so crucial in remote Indigenous communities. The design and construction of their treatment plant and water supply is another side of the story. While the project went very smoothly, there were many times that it could have soured and gone over time and budget. Relationship management is critical to the success of projects within Indigenous communities. Firstly, many of them have decades, if not more, of experience of being overlooked and neglected by government and industry alike. It is difficult to gain their trust and easy to lose it. The involvement of multiple jurisdictions can mean many stakeholders are involved, from Indigenous Services Canada to neighbouring municipalities and two provinces, all the normal regulatory bodies, as well as contractors and sub-contractors. With everyone involved, it is important to keep in mind that ultimately the work is being done for the community. Respect for the community and its people is also paramount. It is important to connect with them and understand their traditions as well as concerns. The Shoal Lake #40 project engaged and followed the guidance and ceremonies of community elders in the identification and protection of medicinal plants, continued overleaf…
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