More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
More than 30,000 litres of bottled water arrived in Nunavut’s capital city Thursday after the government declared a state of emergency due to an evolving water crisis.
The plane, filled with sorely needed potable water, is the first of at least five shipments expected in Iqaluit by the beginning of next week.
“The estimated total of all of it up to Monday evening should be around 170,000 litres of water,” James Mearns, director of Nunavut Emergency Management, told CTV National News.
On Tuesday, the city warned residents not to drink the tap water after a fuel-like smell was detected at the water treatment plant. Water samples from Iqaluit were sent to a lab in Southern Canada for testing and are expected back in the coming days, but officials say the water source is potentially tainted with petroleum.
The city said residents will be given a maximum of four reusable jugs per household and urged people to keep them for future use.
The safe drinking water currently available is being handed out in 16-litre rations per household – welcome news to those struggling without water.
“You just feel really restricted, and it does affect every way of life at home. This is amazing to me. I couldn’t have gone without this water,” Iqaluit resident Maye Malliki told CTV National News after receiving her ration.
“This is very, very serious. I didn’t realize until today when it’s really affecting me.”
Agnico Eagle, which operates several mines in the territory, has also promised 15,000 litres of water to Iqaluit on a cargo flight that is set to land Friday. Meanwhile, some residents have been collecting water at Iqaluit's Sylvia Grinnell River.
Experts say that while any amount of fuel in drinking water is unsafe, drinking it over the short term isn't necessarily dangerous.
Steven Siciliano, a microbiologist and toxicologist, told The Canadian Press that long-term exposure to compounds found in gasoline could be "very risky" but drinking it for a week or so probably isn't going to do much harm.
"It's not like if you have one cup of water, you're poisoned for the rest of your life," Siciliano said.
"If they drank it before they found there was fuel, I don't think they have grave cause for concern. Going forward, is it OK? Absolutely not."
As officials examine the water treatment plant looking for the cause of the crisis, many in the fast-growing arctic hub fear even larger water struggles are ahead as Geraldine Lake, the city’s main source of drinking water, isn’t sustainable.
“Ultimately, we need to expand our existing water reservoir because we don't have enough water right now to meet the needs of our community,” Iqaluit city councillor Kyle Sheppard told CTV National News.
Sheppard says the once permanently frozen Arctic ground is melting rapidly due to climate change, causing major infrastructure problems.
“The area at the water plant that's been identified as a potential cause of the problems we're facing now is built underground, initially in permafrost. That permafrost is melting and all of our pipe infrastructure is now in the active layer, so it's subject to heaving and moving in the ground that wasn't really designed for,” he explained.
“So, our pipes are breaking off from access faults and snapping and breaking all winter.”
And as temperatures drop in one of Canada’s most northern cities, the urgency grows.
In the meantime, officials say their first priority is to ensure that Iqaluit residents have access to safe water.
Three additional air-loads of bottled water are scheduled to arrive Friday.
With files from the Canadian Press
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.
As if a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers lead in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings wasn't good enough, what was announced at Rogers Place during the next TV timeout nearly blew the roof off the downtown arena.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”