Northern Ont. First Nation breaks ground on water treatment facility

Zhiibaahaasing First Nation on Manitoulin Island held a ceremonial ground-breaking on Friday for its new multi-million-dollar water treatment plant.

An emotional scene more than three decades in the making took place Friday in Zhiibaahaasing when the First Nation broke ground on a new water treatment facility.

Construction of the $47 million plant is expected to take two years. Once complete, there will be water piped into all of the homes in the community along with the infrastructure in place to ensure pressure is maintained in the loss of power.

Zhiibaahaasing, located on Manitoulin Island, has been under a boil water advisory since the early ’90s.

‘We shouldn’t have to drink that water and we shouldn’t have to bathe in that water," band manager Bobbisue Kells-Riberdy tearfully told the community centre as they celebrated this step in the process.

Kells-Riberdy has had to leave the community several times in the last few years to lobby for funding.

“It’s taken so long to get here,” she said.

“Our chief has been dealing with this issue for over 32 years and it’s amazing to see where we’ve come so far – to be able to break ground today and to celebrate clean drinking water for our community.”

Kells-Riberdy said the cisterns currently in use were never meant for human consumption because the chemicals that leech out of the concrete are coming into the water.

“As a mom it scares me because I think will my kids get cancer, skin cancer from that water? It’s very scary,” she said.

“When we have visitors who come here, we have to constantly remind them, don’t drink that water.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Chief Irene Kells, who said there have been a number of illnesses within their community and she wonders if it has anything to do with the water.

“It’s a day of disbelief and belief,” said Kells.

“To actually realize this community is going to have safe drinking water that will come into our homes and it won’t be given to us through water trucks or jugs and to know that our kids are going to enjoy the fresh water that comes from the lakes to begin with and we have safe drinking water.”

“We drank that water since Day 1 and I think about the number of people who are sick likely today because of it,” she added.

There are roughly 80 people who call the Zhiibaahaasing home. It’s adjacent to Sheshegwaning First Nation and the only access is through the main road in Sheshegwaning.

Because of its remote location, Zhiibaahaasing doesn’t regularly use its territory on Cockburn Island.

The facility will be run by water operator Jonathan Riberdy, who has a young family on Zhiibaahaasing.

For Riberdy, it means everything that his children will see clean water coming out of the tap.

“It’s going to be amazing -- it’s going to be the best thing since sliced bread because we’ve never had potable water and my kids don’t feel safe turning on the tap,” he said.

That was the big kicker for many in attendance for the ground-breaking: there are kids and even young councillors who don’t know what it’s like to have clean drinking water piped into their houses.

“It’s going to be nice to not worry about if my water jug is full, to be able to grab a cup of coffee in the morning, it’ll be nice,” said Deputy Chief Kevin Mossip.