November 24, 2025
Jocelyn Thorpe and Adele Perry
Adele Perry and Jocelyn Thorpe respond to a City of Winnipeg Report outlining the importance of completing the final phase of the new North End Water Pollution Control Centre (NEWPCC) in a Winnipeg Free Press article published November 24, 2025.
We have invested large sums of money in infrastructure before.
You don’t often hear Winnipeggers complaining about the results: soft, clean drinking water thanks to the Shoal Lake aqueduct and flood protection thanks to the Red River Floodway.
A new city report outlines the importance of upgrading Winnipeg’s North End sewage treatment plant, which is responsible for treating 70 per cent of the city’s wastewater and all sewage sludge. The report focuses on the upgrades’ potential benefits to the city, including increased capacity to build new homes and businesses, and related economic growth.
It briefly mentions that upgrades to the plant are necessary in order to meet environmental regulations designed to protect waterways from the discharge of harmful materials that compromise the health of the Red River and Lake Winnipeg.
But nowhere does the report mention that Indigenous communities located downstream from Winnipeg are the ones bearing the brunt of Winnipeg’s sewage treatment shortcomings. Last year, in response to a sewage spill that resulted in over 228 million litres of sewage flowing into the Red River, 10 First Nations situated around Lake Winnipeg sued municipal, provincial and federal governments for the violation of their treaty rights, ongoing pollution of the lake, and its effects on the health and well-being of First Nations citizens.
