LETTER: The government can't rely on band aids for clean drinking water

York Landing was instructed to use straw bales to keep a pump from freezing

Dear Minister Hajdu,

I am writing to you today following a troubling message I received from Councillor Louisa Constant of York Landing. Councillor Constant reached out to your department expressing concerns about a trash pump and connected hoses that keep on freezing, forcing operators to thaw it out. We’re only at the beginning of the cold season. The current solution suggested was to insulate the trash pump with straw bales to keep it from freezing, requiring 24-hour operation and manning of pumps. These types of temporary solutions are unfortunately necessary, but it only highlights your government’s failures.

The Auditor General was quite clear in her report regarding your government’s all too often reliance on temporary solutions to solve the clean drinking water crisis facing First Nations. Communities like York Landing deserve better, and I hope you will do everything in your department’s power to move away from these type of band aids so that communities like York Landing can depend on their water supply.

Sincerely,

MP Niki Ashton (Churchill—Keewatinook Aski)