The continuing water crisis for the First Nations of Canada

Access to safe, clean drinking water is still a major issue for the First Nations people of Canada.

In an EKOS public opinion research report released by Health Canada and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, it states there is a “dramatic difference in confidence levels between First Nations residents and other residents when it comes to the quality of their water.”

“Fewer than half of First Nations residents rated the quality of their drinking water as good, which is considerably lower than the 63 per cent of residents of other small communities (i.e., the general public).”

A similar report in 2005 by the Auditor General of Canada’s office recommended the need for a regulatory regime to be put in place to aid both federal agencies, who’re responsible for ensuring safe drinking water in these communities.

Jerome Berthelette and Andre Cote, the two auditors of the 2005 report haven’t followed up since it was released four years ago, but were told that establishing another governmental body was something that could not be done.

“There’s a lack of regulations governing water on reserves,” Berthelette said. “Indian Affairs attempts to fill the regulatory gap by referring to provincial legislation.”

According to both Berthelette and Cote, it’s a lack of guidelines on the part of Health Canada and INAC, as well as an issue with funding.

“There are important elements in the provincial system, which aren’t covered by Indian Affairs, and we set out some of them like licensing and approval of water treatment plants,” Berthelette said.

The criteria of the 2005 report titled “Drinking Water in First Nations Communities” had the two auditors look at all different types of situations across the country.

“We reviewed twenty First Nations communities, and we picked different systems in terms of size, isolation and those closer to major urban centres,” Cote said.

“We wanted to have a variety of situations to have better understanding of the overall challenge with providing drinking water.”

In the recently released EKOS report it states there are still numerous incidences of boil water advisories, where people are notified that they cannot drink or use the water without boiling it first.

“Four in ten First Nations people living on-reserve indicate that they have been or are currently under a drinking or boil water advisory.”

For Cote, this is something that needs to be seriously addressed, because if First Nations residents are afraid of using the water due to constant alerts and advisories than there’s no hope of changing their perception.

“There was at the time a certain level of ambiguity as to who was responsible to issue those and deal with the causes,” he said. “Actually boil water advisories are very common, perhaps not on an ongoing basis, in non-Aboriginal communities as well.”