For most of us in Canada, out comes clean water. Canada’s new government should make addressing the lack of safe drinking water in many First Nations communities in Canada an urgent priority, Chiefs of Ontario and Human Rights Watch said today. The reasons why water on First Nations isn’t potable varies, impacted by everything from the water’s origin to the pipes through which it flows to how remote the community is. Everyone in Canada has a right to clean drinking water. Can the Liberals really end boil water advisories on First Nations by 2021? But many are given band-aid solutions that result in new short-term advisories. However, that data has its limitations: it doesn’t include B.C. While many communities have been dealing with these so-called short-term problems for years, Angela Mashford-Pringle, who works at the Waakebiness-Bryce Institute for Indigenous Health at the University of Toronto, told Global News in July that such communities are being left out because their advisories are not technically “long-term.”, “Realistically, if you went across the country, quite a few of the 633 First Nations are on either short-term or medium-term advisories,” she said. Indigenous communities and water crises — is a real solution in the works? WATCH: Trudeau says government ‘on track’ to fulfill clean-water promise. From that, Ontario has approved $2.7 million in funding in 2017 towards drinking water projects in 91 First Nation communities. 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As she said, she’s still hunting for answers. Some of the … The number of First Nations houses without indoor plumbing in Canada has dropped from 3,500 in 2007 to 2,034 in 2017. In fact, her research showed that sometimes, boil water advisories were instituted not because there wasn’t a facility in the community but because there wasn’t a trained operator available. READ MORE: To understand how this system became so unequal and why First Nations receive less funding for clean water than neighbouring municipalities simply because they are regulated federally and not provincially, you have to go back to the beginning of Canada — to colonization. And even if Trudeau eliminates long-term boil water advisories by 2021, experts like Martin-Hill say he won’t have actually addressed the issues that led to them — nor will it mean that all First Nations people have guaranteed, long-term access to clean drinking water. History has shown that P3s cost more, they lead to the privatization of water, and a loss of community control and jobs. A recent CBC investigation revealed that 180 homes in Garden Hill First Nation, Manitoba, lack running water and indoor plumbing. So why, despite the federal government’s pledge, do some First Nations still not have potable water, and what exactly needs to be done to get it to them? The lack of clean, safe drinking water in First Nations is one of the greatest violations of the UN-recognized human rights to water and sanitation. Sure, if you’re going by their official numbers that’s true, except their numbers are … Ten advisories have been lifted in the Kenora riding since the Liberals came to power: today, 16 of the 40 First Nations in the area have no access to clean water, down from 26. It is hard to imagine that in 2019, First Nations in Canada could lack access to clean drinking water in their own territories — but many do. Celebrating 10 years of the human right to water, COVID-19 puts the human right to water front and centre, Attawapiskat water crisis another failure by federal government to provide safe water to First Nations, Factsheet: Why Canada needs a National Water Policy, Report: Glass half empty? Can the Liberals really end boil water advisories on First Nations by 2021? In other words, only a small percentage of the population gets clean water — everyone else needs to buy big jugs of fresh water. “There’s over 600 First Nations in Canada, over 130 in Ontario, so once that actually trickles down, that’s not a big number,” Montour says. Photo by KEVIN McSHEFFREY/THE STANDARD As many as 15 men and women strolled into Elliot Lake, which was covered with a thin sheet of ice on Sunday, Dec. 6. We explain why this problem has persisted and what the Trudeau government is doing about it. Trusted. READ MORE: But in some places in this country, it’s not that simple, says Sheri Longboat. The Government of Canada and First Nations communities are working in partnership to improve water infrastructure on reserves and support access to safe, clean and reliable drinking water. Take action! Why don’t all First Nations have clean water? That these communities are federally regulated stands out, Thompson says — and not in a good way. One of the side effects of this move was that Martin-Hill grew up with clean water that flowed easily from the tap. At any given time, some 100 First Nations are under water advisories, according to non-profit organization The Council of Canadians. The most commonly cited reason (56% of advisories) being inadequate disinfection or disinfectant residuals. It wasn’t until she was older — and within a week of being back in Six Nations — that Martin-Hill experienced her first boil water advisory. First Nations get much less from the federal government than they would from the province if they were a municipality of similar size, says McClearn. Eabametoong declared a state of emergency after the water developed a “noticeable foul smell and taste,”however the community has been under a boil-water advisory for nearly two decades. There is nothing more important than clean water, especially now in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. We explain why this problem has persisted and what the Trudeau government is doing about it. Hundreds of water and wastewater infrastructure projects on reserves are underway across the country and completing these projects will lead to lifting more advisories as clean, reliable water is restored to First Nations communities. During the 2015 election campaign, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau promised to eliminate all long-term water advisories on First Nations by March 2021. non-profit organization The Council of Canadians. It is hard to imagine that in 2019, First Nations in Canada could lack access to clean drinking water in their own territories — but many do. In fact, 400 of 618 First Nations were under at least one water advisory between 2004 and 2014. The government didn’t give much thought to the land where they sent First Nations, Martin-Hill says. But many say that the government is not doing enough — and point to the situation in northwestern Ontario as proof of the need for action. Greater control by and for First Nations over water is a basic step toward reconciliation, a requirement of  the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and a necessary precondition to ending drinking water advisories in First Nations for good. Lack of access to clean, safe drinking water in First Nations must be fixed for good. Why some First Nations still don’t have clean drinking water — despite Trudeau’s promise. The Council of Canadians fights for safe, clean water for everyone. Can they again? Now, Six Nations has the treatment plant, Martin-Hill says, but people still live without clean drinking water because almost nobody has piping into their houses that can carry in the newly clean water. “It’s a really complicated system … especially remote communities would struggle with that,” she says. When Parliament passed the Indian Act in 1876, it established the reserve system that Canadians know now. The Trudeau … Write or design a message to send to the Prime Minister. P3s are not the answer to the drinking water crisis in First Nations. Dunstan lives in Lytton First Nation, a rural on-reserve Indigenous community of 945 people in British Columbia, Canada’s westernmost province. Many Indigenous communities have gone for years and years without clean drinking water — living, as one woman put it, “in Third-World conditions in a First-World country.”, Some advisories are so old, explains Dawn Martin-Hill, one of the founders of the Indigenous Studies Program at McMaster University, that “you could have a 16-year-old girl growing up in northern Ontario who has never been able to drink or bathe in the water that they have access to.”. The most common is a boil water advisory, in which communities are told they should boil all water for at least one minute before drinking, brushing their teeth or cooking and that they shouldn’t use tap water to bathe infants, toddlers or the elderly. Please read our Commenting Policy first. A big chunk of the reason for these issues is money. Trudeau’s Liberals benefited from record Indigenous voter turnout in 2015. But try telling that to Mike Gull. With few options, Martin-Hill says the community took the money, built their “state-of-the-art treatment plant and said: ‘We’ll figure it out as we always do.’”, WATCH (2016): Human Rights Watch blasts inaction in providing safe water to First Nations communities. “We need to get our land claims settled in a just way and then we would be able to solve our own problems.”. The lake provides all the drinking water for the city of Winnipeg but the people of Shoal Lake #40 have long been under a boil water advisory because the federal government has failed to replace the community's inadequate water treatment system. There is nothing more important than clean water, especially now in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. As of February, 61 Indigenous reserves were under long-term drinking water advisories, half of which remain unresolved after more than a decade. Lytton is just one among hundreds of First Nations that have suffered from a water crisis in Canada. Many Indigenous communities have gone for years and years without clean drinking water — living, as one … “Just because a community doesn’t have a boil water advisory doesn’t mean that they’re happy with their level of water service.”. READ MORE: Activists in northeastern Ontario fighting for safe, clean water in First Nations communities across Canada are getting tired of broken promises. This is even more urgent as COVID-19 continues to spread globally. Some First Nations don’t even have a water treatment plant, so they’re a higher priority for government funding. “I’m still asking that question many years later,” says Martin-Hill, McMaster’s Paul R. MacPherson Chair in Indigenous Studies and a Mohawk woman living in the Six Nations of the Grand River in southern Ontario. “It’s the most decentralized way to manage a drinking water system,” she says. ‘Statues are not history’ — Considering the removal of Sir John A. Macdonald. Fresh water. “They didn’t put in roads, housing or infrastructure because they thought we were going to die out … they never thought we would still be here. Trudeau: Time to end drinking water advisories in First Nations. About usTake ActionCampaignsAnalysisUpdatesContact Us, Donate nowRenew your supportOther ways to give, The Council of Canadians 200-240 Bank Street, Ottawa, ON K2P 1X4, Tel. Nearly half of the 133 First Nations in Ontario currently have boil water advisories and it's been more than 10 years since 10 First Nations in northwestern Ontario had clean drinking water. A Health Canada study from 1995-2007 found that a total of 162 advisories had been in effect for longer than one year. Canadian governments have spent many years and billions of dollars trying to make clean water flow from the taps on First Nations. masters research on water advisories in First Nations, ‘Statues are not history’ — Considering the removal of Sir John A. Macdonald. 1880 First Nations homes WITHOUT water services 15 years Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg went without clean water (1.5 hours away from the nation's capital) Two-thirds of First Nations have been under at least 1 water advisory between 2004 and 2014 Many First Nations communities do not have access to safe drinking water because of a "discriminatory legal gap" in Canada, according to the new … Clean-water access is an issue of living and breathing, she says, an issue of environmental concern and also an issue with deep historical roots. Canadian governments have spent many years and billions of dollars trying to make clean water flow from the taps on First Nations. On July 7, Attawapiskat First Nation declared a state of emergency over concerns about disinfection byproducts called trihalomethanes. Problems with drinking water on First Nations have persisted for decades. 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