Adaptation guides for communities and individuals across the north. Available in English, French, Inuktitut (South Baffin dialect), and Inuinnaqtun.
Support for this work was provided by Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, the Standards Council of Canada, the Canadian Standards Association, and the Government of Nunavut.
The Fall Harvest Fair is typically held in September. It is a fun, family friendly event for Yellowknife, Dettah, and Ndilo residents to get outside, enjoy good food, have fun, and build on our historic connection with the land. The goal of Fall Harvest Fair is more than just a celebration of food, but also a celebration of culture and way to bring together YK Dene and other Yellowknifers.
Some of the events held during Fall Harvest Fair have included:
From 2010-2014, the Fair was hosted in Yellowknife at Northern United Place. Starting in 2014, Ecology North has partnered with Yellowknives Dene First Nation (YKDFN), the Yellowknife Community Garden Collective (YCGC), and various other partners to coordinate Fall Harvest Fair in Ndilo or at the Wiiliideh site.
Background
Ecology North worked with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, the hamlet of Kakisa, and representatives from the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) to study the physical and mental health impacts of 2014’s extreme forest fire season and the related costs to the healthcare system. Climate change is creating conditions in the North and across Canada that will make extreme forest fire seasons more common. Drier winters with less snowfall, low water levels, and warmer summers with more lightning storms all contribute to an elevated risk of forest fires during the summer months.
The health risks associated with climate change are many and varied, and the concurrent costs may be more than our system can handle. With the completion of this project we hope to show that climate change is impacting the health system and all of us. The summer of 2014, and the incredible smoke that blanketed the NWT, impacted people in many ways. Vulnerable populations had their physical health impacted by the smoke, but what was most captivating about the results of this project were the emotional and stress related affects throughout the population.
Ecology North and CAPE managed this mixed-method study researching the impacts on the health system, while at the same time asking ordinary NWT residents from four communities to make videos of their experiences in the Summer of 2014. The results show the wide impact that the forest fires had on the population.
The infographic below shows a narration of the Summer of Smoke against the Yellowknife air quality records of the season.
Ecology North was also interested in how Yellowknife’s air quality during the Summer of Smoke compared to the notoriously bad air quality in Beijing, China. Check out the results below.
Summer of Smoke – Interdisciplinary Mixed-Methods Research Project
January 23, 2016 marked the first public showcase of preliminary results from the Summer of Smoke interdisciplinary mixed methods research project. We were incredibly lucky to have such a wealth of knowledge, experience, and initiative on the speaker’s panel. Much thanks goes out to Dr. Patrick Scott; Fred Sangris, former Chief of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation; Jessie MacKenzie, Climate Change and our Lands in Film research coordinator; Dr. Courtney Howard of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment; and Dr. James Orbinski of the Balsillie School of International Affairs.
This project is made possible with funding from Health Canada.
Following the successful conclusion of the Clean Start program in the Sahtu, Ecology North began working with the MACA School of Community Government and the GNWT Dept of Environment and Natural Resources to develop an instructional film intended to help NWT communities to better manage their hazardous waste.
Hazardous waste superstar Gerald Enns, along with Christine Wenman and Jeremy Flatt from Ecology North, developed a script covering the basics of dealing with a disorganized stockpile of hazardous waste and developing a community hazardous waste management plan. At just shy of forty minutes, this instructional epic leaves no stone un-turned and features interviews with municipal staff in Wekweètì reflecting on their experience of removing hazardous waste from the community as well as a comprehensive demonstration by Gerald Enns of the proper process for opening un-labelled drums and identifying the contents.
Copies of the video are available from the GNWT Department of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Ecology North, GNWT- ENR and the community of Sambaa K’e have been working together to remove hazardous waste from the landfill.
Source Water Sampling Revealed Hazardous Waste as a Primary Concern
In 2015, the community completed a draft source water protection plan that identified several potential water quality contaminant sources within the Trout Lake watershed, and a list of desired management actions to address the potential contaminant sources, including hazardous waste in the landfill.
Following the completion of the plan, our team started moving towards implementing priority action items in the plan. Although the concerns are diverse, water quality sampling is a clear priority. During 2015-2016 we focused our implementation efforts on doing water quality sampling near abandoned well and waste sites in the watershed.
Building on the results and capacity developed during the 2015-2016 sampling work, our team decided it was the best time to move towards addressing the actions in the source water plan related to hazardous waste in the community and associated concerns about water quality impacts.
Hazardous Waste Remediation, Phase 1
In 2016, Ecology North received funding from the World Wildlife Fund to continue our source water implementation work with the community of Trout Lake, specifically with respect to hazardous waste!
This project was aimed at addressing community concerns and questions about the potential impacts that hazardous waste materials in the community are having on surrounding water quality. Our team, which consisted of members from the Sambaa K’e Dene Band of Trout Lake and GNWT ENR, inventoried, consolidated and removed hazardous waste from the community landfill, while also collecting water samples in streams and wetlands surrounding the landfill before and after the clean up.
In addition to collecting valuable data and completing an important clean up initiative, this project was a great hands-on training opportunity for community members to learn more about hazardous waste management and water sampling.
Through this project we were able to provide a unique hazardous waste training opportunity. Ecology North invited other communities to send candidates for the documenting, organizing and the final removal of Trout Lake’s hazardous materials from the local landfill. We held two training opportunities, one in the summer for the documenting, and organizing of hazardous waste ready for removal during the winter road season.
Hazardous Waste Remediation, Phase 2
Our second session commenced in March 2017 for the loading and removal of the hazardous waste on the winter road. We’d like to thank, World Wildlife fund, ENR and the following individuals from their respective communities in the successful removal of hazardous waste form the community of Trout Lake;
The 2015-2016 Trout Lake Water Quality Sampling Project emerged from the Source Water Protection Planning Project that Ecology North undertook in partnership with the Sambaa K’e Dene Band (SKDB) and Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) in 2014.
Following the completion of the plan in 2015, there were several calls for additional water quality sampling near abandoned well and waste sites in the watershed. As such, this project was developed as a first step towards implementing these calls for action. The purpose of the sampling project was to gain a better understanding of how abandoned well and waste sites may be impacting water quality in the Sambaa K’e watershed.
Sampling
The majority of sampling was done by SKDB members during the summer and fall of 2015. In total, nine samples were taken from five different sites identified as source water priorities by Sambaa K’e community members. Parameters test included pH, total BTEX (hydrocarbons), conductivity, major ions, total trade metals and total mercury. All of the results were compared to the Canadian Water Quality Guidelines for the Protection of Aquatic Life, which are developed by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME).
Overall, the 2015 sampling results were positive. At all sites, arsenic, molybdenum, nickel, lead, selenium and zinc were below the CCME Guidelines for the Protection of Aquatic Life. No hydrocarbons (oil and gas chemicals) were detected at these sites. There were some exceedances in cadmium, copper, iron, total mercury and silver, these sites were flagged for continued monitoring through future work.
Results Meeting
In early January 2016 Ecology North hosted a results meeting and open house in Sambaa K’e, nearly one fifth of the community attended this meeting. These results were well received and fostered substantial interest among community members for additional training and continued water sampling in the community. The insights gathered from this meeting and the sampling results collected during the project are being used to inform the development of a more formal source water protection implementation plan for Sambaa K’e. The plan will provide a more detailed list of actions, timelines and targets for source water protection activities, including our Hazardous Waste Clean Up Project.
Click below to open the sampling result summary:
The Peel River Plateau region of the NWT is experiencing some of the most dramatic climate change impacts in the world. Warming winter temperatures and increasing summer rainfall are causing large tracts of land to melt and slump, releasing massive quantities of sediment into rivers and lakes. Scientists working with the NWT’s Cumulative Impacts Monitoring Program are seeking to understand the extent of the changes and their implications for the region and its people.
Christine Wenman spent a week in Ft McPherson NWT filming these scientists at work. The short documentary that was produced features interviews with the scientists as well as local residents who contributed to the research. The film will be available online when it has completed a run of independent festivals. Watch this space.
In March 2013, Environment Canada published a report, Technical Document on Municipal Solid Waste Organics Processing that had a target audience of medium to large Canadian municipalities. In the Canadian North, over half the population lives in small- to medium-sized communities outside of the capital cities. Recently, communities such as Hay River, Northwest Territories have expressed a desire to recycle like their southern counterparts and to compost organic residuals such as food and yard wastes. Composting organic materials using paper products as carbon sources presents an opportunity to locally convert more than 60% of the waste stream into a valuable soil amendment.
This Feasibility of Centralized Composting in Hay River report builds on this previous work by providing a case study for territorial, provincial and municipal governments, and other decision-makers to increase organics diversion in northern communities.
Click below to view the report:
Appendices to the report can be found here:
Ecology North, in collaboration with the community of Fort Resolution, including Deninu Kue First Nation, Fort Resolution Metis Council, Deninu School, GNWT ENR, and the University of Saskatchewan, helped to develop a pilot project aimed at engaging Fort Resolution youth in cumulative impacts assessments related to water. We saw an opportunity to build on ongoing research and monitoring efforts in Fort Resolution by developing a program to engage community youth in aquatic cumulative effects monitoring, while also linking to ongoing high school science curriculum.
The core focus of the project, in addition to ongoing collection of data to assess cumulative water impacts in the NWT, was youth capacity building. One of the key goals of the project was to encourage youth to become knowledgeable and interested in carrying out monitoring work in their communities with researchers, scientists, technical staff and community organizations.
The project was broken into four learning sessions, which were a series of workshop style sessions that combined western science and traditional knowledge, hands-on activities, instruction and break-out group work. Each session focused on a different part of the research and monitoring process and gave students an opportunity to learn and try out new skills. Three detailed curriculum resource templates pertaining to water, ice and fish were also developed as part of the project. The curriculum resources are designed to provide guidance, activities and information for teachers interested in incorporating activities that can reflect learning about cumulative effects.
Over the course of the project students developed their own individual research projects on a topic of interest to them. The projects were student-led and student-driven and followed an inquiry-based learning process that was part of the experiential science curriculum taught by Mr. Ted Moes at Deninu School.
Click below to read the teaching resource that was developed for this pilot project:
In 2013 and 2014, Ecology North partnered with Sahtu communities to tackle the challenge of hazardous waste that has accumulated in municipal solid waste disposal sites over decades. Much of this waste comes from non-municipal sources such as industry and government.
Together with municipalities and with support from the GNWT departments of ENR and MACA, we were able to develop itemized inventories of hazardous waste in the solid waste facilities in the communities of Norman Wells, Tulita, Colville Lake and Fort Good Hope. A lot of the waste was tidied up, labeled and repacked so that much of it is now ready for transport out of the communities and disposal at appropriate facilities that are able to handle these kinds of waste.
The project also helped to draw attention to the challenge, and we are hopeful that federal, territorial and municipal jurisdictions will be able to work together to dispose of the waste in the future.
