Iqaluit In A State Of Emergency

On October 12th, 2021, Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, has been under a local state of emergency when it was suspected that fuel was contaminating the city’s water. Iqaluit is a very small city in northern Canada with a population of around 8,200 people. It is also important to note that of their small population, a large amount of the residents are Inuit, of Indigenous descent. As of today, October 25th, 2021, the state of emergency remains in place.

Northern Territories already have their fair share of challenges without adding undrinkable water on their list. Food pricing is often two to three times more expensive than the rest of Canada, as an example, a dozen eggs can be as much as $10.99. Northern Territories are very isolated from the rest of Canada and the lack of shipments and isolation cause these expensive prices.

It is unclear how fuel came to contaminate their tap water, though health officers have announced that investigations are underway to determine the cause. Quickly, Iqaluit’s two grocery stores ran out of water bottles and water jugs, while residents were being instructed that even boiling tap water was unsafe, their only source was from local rivers. It was not until Friday, October 22nd that the federal government approved the deployment of Canadian Forces to provide Iqaluit with drinkable water. The Canadian military is expected to be bringing two purification units; however, it can take up to a week for these units to be set up. Though it seems the people of Iqaluit are running low on time, as their rivers are starting to freeze over.

One key thing to note throughout this whole crisis is the pace at which the Canadian government is acting. It took 10 days for Justin Trudeau to approve sending Military government, while their plan of action is expected to take another week to prepare. It would be hard to fathom if the city of Toronto was to deal with this situation that the government would not leap into action immediately and form a plan of action to help the residents of Toronto. As mentioned earlier the majority of Iqaluit’s population are Indigenous, and the Canadian government has a pattern of disregarding the right to clean water when dealing with the indigenous community. Many Canadian Indigenous reservations have been without clean water for years, without any aid or support from the federal government. It should come as no surprise that the federal government has moved at such a slow pace in helping the people of Iqaluit.

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