Elliot Page gave $25K for a community well in N.S. It's still not running and he's not happy

It sounds the likes of a sure-fire win: a Hollywood asterisk makes a generous donation to set up a job in a cash-strapped little town.

But for Elliot Page and his $25,000 donation made years ago to build a community well in Shelburne, N.S., it’s become the gift that keeps on giving — headaches and heartache, though still not a drop of water for a drought-prone region.

“Continued frustration and anger and sadness,” Page said in an exclusive interview from New York City, summing up his feelings about the long-delayed project.

“I don’t quite understand that we’re just talking about getting clean water into a community that has faced tremendous obstacles and barriers.”

For seven years, the well project has been fraught with disagreement, division and delays involving the province and two municipal governments, a community college and a community group known as the South End Environmental Injustice Society (SEED). 

The matter has led to disputes over the location and accusations of racism.

“No one’s negating the complexity of an issue of, like, supplying water for a community, you know,” Page said. But “it has just been truly ongoing stalling, changes of plan.”

Page’s 2019 documentary There’s Something in the Water shed light on the province’s history of environmental racism in Black and Indigenous communities, including the African Nova Scotian community near Shelburne’s old garbage dump. Residents fear it’s contaminated their drinking water and caused cancer rates to spike.

On the heels of the documentary’s release, Page pledged $25,000 to pay for a well and committed to provide $5,000 annually to help cover operating costs.

The donation was intended to pay to have a well drilled at a recreation centre in the Black community, but the proposed location then shifted to an existing well on the province’s NSCC campus located outside town limits, in the Municipality of the District of Shelburne. 

Two-thirds of Page’s $25,000 gift was spent testing the well in 2023.

The province has approved $170,000 in funding for the project, but it comes with a catch. The project must be completed by November 2027, said activist Louise Delisle.

She founded the community group SEED, but left it after disagreeing with how Page’s donation was spent. 

“At present, the decision rests with the Town regarding whether they wish to participate in a cooperative operating model,” said MacLeod.

Jacklin, who is also the president of SEED, was not present and Coun. Elizabeth Acker announced at the meeting that he had declared a conflict of interest.

No decisions have been made regarding funding or operations, Acker said during the meeting.

“When we have the information that completes our next step, we will share,” he wrote.

Ingrid Waldron, a social justice scholar whose book There’s Something in the Water inspired Page’s documentary of the same name, says the original intent behind the well project has hit a nerve. 

“The word racism gets people’s backs up,” she said. “One of the definitions of environmental racism is kind of delayed action.”

Page believes the conversation about industrial pollution and its proximity to racialized communities is more relevant than ever.

"More and more industry seems to be coming to Nova Scotia, and we know the communities that can be disproportionately impacted by that," he said.

The need for a well is now amplified by climate change, and leveraging it to help address the community's concerns stemming from environmental racism is helpful, said Waldron. The area has faced abnormally dry to extreme drought conditions in nine of the last 10 years and wells have run dry.

“These two [municipal] councils are now realizing that we have a problem and if we don’t have water, we don’t live,” said Delisle.

The warden of the municipality, Penny Smith, said the matter is complicated.

“The province, the two municipalities and SEED are in the midst of working through a complex process,” she wrote by email.

For Page, he doesn’t have any regrets about the money donated. He said his interview about the project delays allowed him to reconnect with Delisle and Waldron, who were featured in his documentary and "really inspire me endlessly."

Without a start date for the well, Page said a second documentary is a possibility.

“We’ve definitely discussed the potential for it,” he said.

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Elizabeth Chiu is a community engagement producer who amplifies stories from underserved communities about their issues, aspirations and joys. Have an idea to share? Let her know at elizabeth.chiu@cbc.ca

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