Review underway into Puvirnituq, Que., water crisis, as province negotiates new agreement

A third-party review is now underway into the cause of a severe water shortage in Puvirnituq, Que., earlier this year.

For months, the village of 2,100 people grappled with a water delivery and sewage crisis, after a water pipeline that connects the pump station to the treatment plant froze mid-March.

At times, the local hospital ran out of water and had to fly some patients south for care. Nunavik's chief public health officer also warned that illnesses like gastroenteritis (stomach flu) could spread rapidly as the water shortage affected access to sanitation.

Severe weather conditions also made it difficult to complete water deliveries, which eventually triggered a state of emergency in May that lasted almost three weeks. The emergency ended earlier this month after a temporary water pipeline bypass was installed. 

On Friday, local, regional and provincial leaders met in Puvirnituq to discuss the path forward. 

Ian Lafrenière, Quebec's minister responsible for relations with First Nations and the Inuit, said he wants to understand what exactly triggered the crisis. 

"We know that the main pipe froze, but why is that? Is it because of maintenance? Is it because of a lack of proper equipment?" he said. 

Kativik Regional Government officials told CBC News at the time that a heating wire, which prevents water from freezing during the winter, had reached the end of its life.

Hilda Snowball, chairperson of the Kativik Regional Government (KRG), believes the third-party review, which is expected to be complete by September, will highlight how outdated Nunavik's water infrastructure is, and how more funding is needed. 

"All these discussions will be had after the report comes out, and we will push to have a strategic plan in place for Puvirnituq, as well as the other communities that are facing issues with their infrastructure," she said. 

Finding new communications channels

Lafreniere acknowledges there was a lot of pressure on the village during those few months, but he said it was difficult to get information about what was happening in Puvirnituq. At times, he said he found out about some issues from the media.

"One part of the diagnostic that I made very clear with all my colleagues on Friday was to establish what are the responsibilities of everybody, from KRG, the municipality, to us as a government," he said. 

"At the end of the day, we're not trying to do some finger-pointing, we're just trying to find a solution for the future."

For her part, Snowball said KRG was in constant communication with Lafreniere's office, though there were other provincial departments that cancelled some meetings. 

"We will for sure push to have better communications as well," she said. 

Negotiating a new 2-year funding agreement

Improving communications is important, Lafreniere said, especially now as the province negotiates a new two-year funding agreement for municipal infrastructure projects.

A priority for him in those discussions is to not implement a paternalistic approach to the partnership, which includes Makivvik and KRG.

"We want to give them all the autonomy that they deserve, but we still get that partnership," he said. 

Snowball acknowledges that KRG has several different funding arrangements with the province, but existing deals for municipal infrastructure are no longer sufficient. 

"With the [current] five-year agreement that we have, most of the funding is already allocated. The increase of the cost, the materials, even renovations is in the millions now. It used to be in the [hundreds of] thousands, but they're now in the millions," she said. 

"If there is a project, there is a certain percentage that the community has to pay. It's impossible for some of the communities to deal with that."

As for long-term changes to Nunavik's water infrastructure, Lafreniere said there are several options they're studying, including utilidors into homes, drilling for groundwater, and creating a direct water line to schools and hospitals. 

However, in the face of a changing climate and melting permafrost, he said there are no perfect solutions. 

"So instead of doing something that is not going to be appropriate in 10, 15, 20 years [time], we want to make sure to find a good solution," he said.