Features
First Nations to Benefit From Training Partnership
Six years after Walkerton, only half of water, waste-water treatment operators meet provincial standards
BY ANDREW VOWLES
Ensuring safe drinking water and proper waste-water treatment in Ontario's First Nations is the goal of a novel training partnership involving U of G and its Campus d'Alfred.
Through U of G's Ontario Rural Wastewater Centre (ORWC), staff and faculty in the School of Engineering and at Alfred are developing curriculum along with the Toronto-based Ontario First Nations Technical Services Corp. (OFNTSC) to train water and waste-water treatment operators in First Nations communities across the province.
Beginning in spring 2007, courses will be delivered by the OFNTSC through a mix of travelling trainers and longer sessions to be held at central locations, says Chris Kinsley, ORWC manager and senior researcher at Alfred. He also hopes to develop web-based materials to offer modules through distance education.
More than six years after the Walkerton tragedy, only about half of the people looking after water and waste-water treatment facilities in First Nations communities meet provincial certification standards. Although operators of First Nations treatment facilities are not provincially regulated, project organizers hope many will be attracted to certification training.
"As many as 50 per cent of all water operators in 134 First Nations communities in Ontario are not certified," says Maurice Morin, a consultant in Mont Tremblant, Que., who has worked with Alfred staff to identify needs of prospective students and to develop funding proposals.
"That's an important issue because of water quality and how that's impacted in isolated communities like Kashechewan or smaller rural communities like Walkerton."
Last fall, about 1,100 people were evacuated from Kashechewan in northern Ontario after drinking water in the James Bay community was contaminated with E. coli. In 2000, water contamination caused partly by negligent operators in the town of Walkerton killed seven people and sickened thousands of others.
"We're trying to deal with the training and certification of the people who are operating these plants," explains Kinsley. "Having qualified, trained, competent operators is a critical component of the infrastructure. A large part of the problem is the lack of community capacity and resources to operate and maintain the plants."
So far, the project has received almost $300,000 from Human Resources and Social Development Canada through its National Literacy Program. Organizers hope to obtain additional funding from governments and agencies to develop and deliver a full suite of modules and distance education options.
The OFNTSC proposed a training partnership with the ORWC about two years ago. The latter centre has offered training for about eight years to people designing, running or inspecting residential and communal septic systems.
"We are very pleased to be working with the OFNTSC on this initiative and consider this to be the first step in developing a sustaining partnership between that organization and the University," says U of G engineering professor Doug Joy, ORWC director.
Kinsley believes this may be the only training program in Canada linking water and waste-water treatment operators in First Nations communities with a university-based applied research centre.
Besides Kinsley and Joy, the curriculum team consists of Alfred researcher Anna Crolla; OFNTSC engineers Irving Leblanc, Derrick Kamanga and Mohammed Karim; and Katherine Rentsch, ORWC project co-ordinator in the School of Engineering.
The group has hired a consultant at the University of Saskatchewan to help incorporate First Nations cultural perspectives on water and water quality.
Kamanga says the OFNTSC has already contracted for training from private consultants. But he says the organization decided to seek additional resources when its own risk assessment following the Walkerton disaster revealed deficiencies in operation and design of treatment facilities.
"The University of Guelph is an established institution and has good access to research and development," he says. "We need that aspect because of its well-established background to deal with rural communities and communities that aren't as advanced as urban communities."
U of G and Alfred researchers established the ORWC in 1998 to provide training and to conduct applied research in decentralized waste-water management.
"We're one of the lead research centres in the country in on-site waste-water treatment and disposal," says Rentsch, an environmental engineering graduate who consulted with First Nations before returning to Guelph a year ago.
OFNTSC provides advice and training in engineering and technical services to Ontario's First Nations.