Latest news with #VeronicaFavel
CBC
4 days ago
- General
- CBC
Cumberland House women spreading awareness of disruption to Saskatchewan River delta
Water advocates Denise McKenzie and Veronica Favel from Cumberland House Cree Nation in Saskatchewan are travelling across the province to raise awareness of the harmful effects of dams on the Saskatchewan River delta.
CTV News
5 days ago
- Politics
- CTV News
‘We have to do something': Indigenous advocacy group opposes irrigation project
A group from Cumberland House and Star Blanket Cree Nation held a demonstration in Saskatoon on Aug. 6, 2025. They're sounding the alarm over the downstream effects of dams on the river delta. (Hallee Mandryk / CTV News) A group of Indigenous women from Cumberland House and Star Blanket Cree Nation are sharing their concerns over water security in their communities. 'The Campbell Dam, which we're just below from, that lake used to be 30 miles long and it used to be 30 to 40 feet deep. Today, it's barely two miles across, two feet of water and the rest of the sludgy sandbar and mud,' Denise McKenzie, a Saskatchewan River Delta advocate said. McKenzie is part of the Indigenous Saskatchewan Women's Environmental Water Advocacy Keepers. The group recently hosted an event in Saskatoon's Rotary Park to share their concerns and teach the public about the Saskatchewan River Delta. 'We have to do something, you know … before it completely dies on us. And we need that water, our environment needs that water. Our wildlife needs that water, and we as human beings, we need that water,' Veronica Favel, an advocate for the Saskatchewan River Delta said. The event specifically highlighted concerns about the Lake Diefenbaker Irrigation project. The $4 billion project is intended to utilize water from southern Saskatchewan's largest body of water to help agricultural production. In June, Cumberland House Cree Nation filed a lawsuit against the province for failing to protect the river delta, warning that industrial and agricultural activity upstream was causing an 'ecological crisis.' The lawsuit alleged the province was promoting further development without a credible plan to manage the environmental impacts. At the time, the First Nation said animal and fish populations in the delta have plummeted, and the water was no longer safe to drink. 'It's going really fast. I can see the next decade, if we continue this way, it's going to go on. And with the irrigation project that's going to totally wipe us out sooner,' McKenzie said on Wednesday. 'It's going really fast. I can see the next decade, if we continue this way, it's going to go on. And with the irrigation project that's going to totally wipe us out sooner,' McKenzie said. In a statement to CTV News, the Saskatchewan Water Security Agency (WSA) said it was planning a consultation process with stakeholders in the near future. 'WSA has proactively declared this project for a provincial environmental assessment and is committed to collecting feedback with rights holders and stakeholders through various engagements over the next several months,' the water regulator said. 'Gardiner Dam and Lake Diefenbaker were built for one million acres of modern irrigation. Currently there are 166,000 acres of irrigation developed in the reservoir. This means there is significant opportunity for development while still balancing the needs of other water users in the system.' But those in Rotary Park on Wednesday afternoon shared that it is about more than one irrigation project. 'It's really important because we're losing a lot of our traditional ways of life. We see it with the fires, we're seeing it with the loss of our water, that it's not just us that's being affected. It's not just the humans. It's the animals, it's all of our ways of life,' Jocelyn Ormero, the president of Gabriel Dumont Local 11 said. Ormero said that while not all Saskatchewan municipalities have bodies of water running through, there is a responsibility of those in the province to protect natural resources for the next generation to see. 'It's important that the next generation coming up in those places have some place to grow up. Because living in a city isn't everything for all of us. It's important to have those ways of life continue on in that tradition,' Ormero said. The group will be heading to Regina on Thursday to share their message in front of the Saskatchewan legislature. 'Without protecting the water, without our traditional ecological knowledge, things aren't okay, and we're seeing that in the world right now. Everything's on fire. And had [we] listened to Indigenous ways of knowing, that might not be the case,' Ormero said. -With files from Rory MacLean
CBC
04-08-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Cumberland House women to travel Sask. spreading awareness of disruption of northern river delta
A group of Indigenous women from from Cumberland House Cree Nation in Saskatchewan say they want to raise awareness of the harmful effects of dams on the Saskatchewan River delta. For generations, the people of Cumberland House Cree Nation, located about 350 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon, have depended on the Saskatchewan River delta, the largest freshwater river delta in North America, stretching 9,700 square kilometres from northeast Saskatchewan into western Manitoba. In June, lawyers for the First Nation in northeastern Saskatchewan filed a statement of claim in Saskatoon Court of King's Bench, alleging the government has failed to uphold its treaty obligations. It names the government of Saskatchewan as the defendant. Now, a group of women calling themselves the Indigenous Saskatchewan Women's Environmental Water Advocacy Keepers Water Movement, or the Iskwewak Movement for short, are planning to travel the province sharing their knowledge of what has happened to the water system. Veronica Favel, one of the water advocates, said the delta is very important for northern people, who use the waterways to get from place to place. "Currently the waters are quite low and the river system is very hard to navigate," she said. She said in some places you come across sandbars, mud bars and rocks more often now because of low waters, which are also impacting land resources and wilderness camps. "It's very hard to navigate through that because of what's going on. It's actually dangerous to be out there if you don't know the waterways." Favel said there needs to be better management of water, because soon there will be no river delta. "We've been saying this for years," she said. "We've had elders that knew prior to this the existence of the dam. They knew that this was gonna have a huge impact, huge destruction. We've had research studies done on the Sask. River delta, which is our homeland, and we know what it's done to not only the environment, but to the animals that feed off it." Denise McKenzie, another water advocate in the Iskwewak movement, said water is essential to everyone for survival. "Water is life, to us it is sacred, and without clean, healthy water, we're done for," she said. McKenzie said the goal is to spread awareness to people all across Saskatchewan. "The way things are going now, we're not going to have a Saskatchewan River delta, especially after they put in the Gardiner Dam's $4-billion project plans they have for the irrigation project. That will be the final blow to the Saskatchewan river." McKenzie was referring to a massive, three-stage irrigation infrastructure plan Premier Scott Moe announced in 2020. Experts have said that a Saskatchewan government-funded report analyzing the costs and benefits of the project showed it is a risky venture that offers, at best, modest gains. The advocates' journey is set to begin on Aug. 4. They plan to drive from the E.B. Campbell dam in northern Saskatchewan, to Danielson Provincial Park, to Rotary Park in Saskatoon, then finally to Wascana Park in Regina. They say they will be doing ceremonies all along the way and speaking about the harmful effects the dams have on the waterway system. "Water is life. Without water nothing lives, and we see the devastation of what is happening," McKenzie said. "We know we have to do something about it. We need these much needed changes, we need to the protection." She said the Cumberland Lake used to be 30 miles (almost 50 kilometres) in length, and 30 to 40 feet deep. Since the establishment of the E.B. Campbell dam in the 1960s, the lake has drastically shrunk, she said. "Today it is less than two miles across, and it's only two feet of water with the rest sludge down below. You can't even go on a nice canoe trip across the lake," she said. Favel said this change is impacting her community's culture and way of life. "We as Indigenous people, we've always lived here and we've always been in connection with the land and what comes with the land.," she said. "We know that without the land or water our culture is going to die. It's a huge part of it. We're connected with all of that, we're the ones that experience it. We live with it, and we have children, grandchildren that are going to live here forever. So we need to do something about it, and that's this is our duty as protectors of water."
