‘Regardless of funding source, when a project poses potential impacts on Indigenous lands, rights, or waterways, meaningful consultation and accommodation are not optional \u2014 they are required’<\/p>\n
SooToday received the following Letter to the Editor from\u00a0Batchewana First Nation\u00a0Member\u00a0Chase Waboose, who expresses concern with\u00a0Searchmont’s\u00a0intentions to dump treated\u00a0sewage wastewater into the Goulais River without\u00a0Batchewana First Nation consultation:<\/p>\n
To whom it may concern,<\/p>\n
I am writing as a concerned member of Batchewana First Nation regarding the recent disclosure that Searchmont Ski Resort, with assistance from Kresin Engineering, intends to discharge treated sewage wastewater into the Goulais River \u2014 a waterway of deep cultural, spiritual, and practical importance to our people.<\/p>\n
Let me be clear: no formal consultation has taken place with Batchewana First Nation regarding this project.<\/p>\n
We were reportedly sent a report, but no meetings occurred, no follow-up discussions were offered, and no opportunity was provided for our community to raise concerns, ask questions, or participate in decision-making. According to Kresin representatives, consultation was dismissed on the grounds that the project is privately funded, and the open house held was described as a mere courtesy.<\/p>\n
This is an unacceptable misinterpretation of Canada\u2019s Duty to Consult obligations under Section 35 of the Constitution Act. Regardless of funding source, when a project poses potential impacts on Indigenous lands, rights, or waterways, meaningful consultation and accommodation are not optional \u2014 they are required.<\/p>\n
The Goulais River is not just water to us. It is a living, sacred ecosystem where generations of our people have fished, swam, gathered medicine, and conducted ceremony. Discharging filtered wastewater \u2014 containing phosphates, microplastics, and pharmaceutical residues \u2014 into that river threatens not only the environment, but our treaty rights and cultural survival.<\/p>\n
The proposed treatment system (SBR \u2013 Sequencing Batch Reactor) only filters out 80\u201385% of contaminants. Worse, there is no emergency response plan in place should that system fail. This is not due diligence. It is negligence.<\/p>\n
If this water is safe, why not reuse it for snowmaking at the hill itself? When asked, the resort\u2019s own management admitted that would \u201ctake too long\u201d to get approved. Would skiers feel safe riding on \u201ctreated snow\u201d? If not, why should our people be expected to drink from or swim in that same water downstream?<\/p>\n
I call on:<\/p>\n
\n\tThe media to investigate and report on this situation immediately.
\n\tThe Ontario Ministry of the Environment (MECP) to halt approvals until full consultation with Batchewana First Nation is conducted.
\n\tSearchmont Holdings Corporation and Kresin Engineering to pause all discharge planning and sit down with our leadership.
\n\tAllies and the broader public to stand with us in protecting the Goulais River \u2014 not just for Indigenous people, but for all who rely on it.
<\/p>\n
Respectfully,<\/p>\n
Chase Waboose,
\nMember, Batchewana First Nation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘Regardless of funding source, when a project poses potential impacts on Indigenous lands, rights, or waterways, meaningful consultation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[10707,49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-10953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-batchewana-first-nationsearchmontsewagewastewater","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}