Investing for ourselves, and those downstream

We have invested large sums of money in infrastructure before.

You don’t often hear Winnipeggers complaining about the results: soft, clean drinking water thanks to the Shoal Lake aqueduct and flood protection thanks to the Red River Floodway.

A new city report outlines the importance of upgrading Winnipeg’s North End sewage treatment plant, which is responsible for treating 70 per cent of the city’s wastewater and all sewage sludge. The report focuses on the upgrades’ potential benefits to the city, including increased capacity to build new homes and businesses, and related economic growth.

It briefly mentions that upgrades to the plant are necessary in order to meet environmental regulations designed to protect waterways from the discharge of harmful materials that compromise the health of the Red River and Lake Winnipeg.

But nowhere does the report mention that Indigenous communities located downstream from Winnipeg are the ones bearing the brunt of Winnipeg’s sewage treatment shortcomings. Last year, in response to a sewage spill that resulted in over 228 million litres of sewage flowing into the Red River, 10 First Nations situated around Lake Winnipeg sued municipal, provincial and federal governments for the violation of their treaty rights, ongoing pollution of the lake, and its effects on the health and well-being of First Nations citizens.

Because Winnipeg’s source of drinking water is not our local rivers, we city dwellers have gotten away with the idea that we can afford not to invest in sewage infrastructure. As a result, our pipes leak, our largest sewage treatment plant is the leading source of algae-bloom-producing phosphorus in Lake Winnipeg, and we dump billions of litres of sewage into the rivers each year through our combined sewer system.

Past major infrastructure projects that benefit Winnipeggers have come at the direct expense of Indigenous communities.

To build the aqueduct, the city, backed by the federal government, took about 3,500 acres of reserve land and stranded the Anishinaabe community on an artificial island, leading to a prolonged drinking water advisory. The floodway has largely protected Winnipeg since its completion in the late 1960s, but has led to the flooding of Indigenous communities. The list of Manitoba First Nations that have dealt with major flooding is long, and includes Pinaymootang, Little Saskatchewan, Lake St. Martin and Dauphin River First Nations, who were flooded out in 2011 to protect Winnipeg.

Winnipeg’s best known infrastructure projects also took considerable investment. The aqueduct, completed in 1919 at a cost of $17 million, was funded partially through a debt of $13,500,000, approved by 97 per cent of Winnipeggers who cast ballots in 1913. The floodway, paid for by the provincial and federal governments, cost $37 million. Perhaps what most clearly differentiates these older projects from the sewage infrastructure projects needed today is that the older projects were done to meet the immediate needs of Winnipeggers, while today’s projects require us to look beyond both the city limits and the present moment.

In the past, Winnipeggers didn’t want to be flooded out of their homes and they needed a supply of clean drinking water, especially since their sewage flowed untreated into the rivers until the North End plant was completed in 1937.

In the present, we must acknowledge that everyone needs clean drinking water and to be safe from floods. For far too long, the infrastructure that has improved our lives in the city has harmed Indigenous communities around us, as well as the water that all of us depend on. It’s time to invest in infrastructure that will benefit not just those who live in Winnipeg, but those who live downstream as well.

The recent report states that if the city has to fund the next stage of treatment plant upgrades through sewer rates alone, bills will go up by an average of over $1,000 annually, posing risks to the affordability of Winnipeg. Given the wide range of annual income of people living in Winnipeg, an increase of $1,000 is unfeasible for some and easily affordable for others. Surely we can find ways to do the work that must be done without causing hardship to those already struggling with the high cost of living.

We can point to examples elsewhere in Canada. Ottawa is investing $4.8 billion in capital spending in water, wastewater and stormwater services between 2026 and 2035. In 2020, Victoria stopped dumping raw sewage into the ocean and now provides a three-stage process to treat wastewater.

Winnipeg’s decision to invest in sewage infrastructure will determine not only the city’s capacity for further development, but our relationships with the waterways and communities around us, now and for future generations.

Jocelyn Thorpe and Adele Perry are members of the Just Waters project and professors in the departments of history and women’s and gender studies at the University of Manitoba.