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An Auditor-General report tabled last month found that nine long-term drinking water advisories affecting First Nations communities had been in place for a decade or longer.JONATHAN HAYWARD/The Canadian Press
First Nations leaders say Ottawa’s latest budget keeps drinking water funding at levels that have already failed to end years of broken promises.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first budget pledges $2.3-billion over three years to provide clean drinking water on First Nations, or around $777-million a year. That’s roughly equivalent to the $800-million a year over two years that former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s government promised in 2024.
“This funding will maintain progress on approximately 800 active projects, including those focused on ending remaining water advisories and preventing new ones by upgrading at-risk systems,” the budget document states.
Since 2015, the government has spent more than $5-billion on water and wastewater projects on First Nations. In that time, 149 long-term drinking water advisories have been lifted, but 38 remain in 36 communities.
That progress falls well short of the promise Mr. Trudeau made while campaigning in 2015 when he vowed to eliminate all boil-water advisories within five years. It remains the unflattering yardstick by which the Liberal government is measured on the issue. First Nations leaders say nothing will improve unless Ottawa adopts a different model for bringing clean drinking water to their communities.
Nearly a decade after Ottawa pledged safe drinking water for all First Nations, promise remains unfulfilled
“We are disappointed to see a funding cut to $777-million from approximately $800-million per year under the previous government in yesterday’s budget,” Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler said in a statement to The Globe. “In NAN territory alone, the total annual need is at least $300-million per year to bring water and wastewater systems in our communities up to municipal standards.”
NAN represents represents 49 First Nations in Northern Ontario, 15 of which are under long-term advisories.
Twenty-four of the 38 remaining advisories are located in Ontario. Abram Benedict, Regional Chief for the Chiefs of Ontario, an umbrella group of all 133 First Nations chiefs in the province, said that in recent years it seems like a new advisory appears for every one that’s lifted.
At current funding levels, Mr. Benedict said Ottawa can only hope to continue this “whack-a-mole” approach.
“I do want to acknowledge there is money in there, that’s good,” he said. “But sadly, it’s a recommittal to the status quo.”
Shawanaga First Nation, roughly 150 kilometres southeast of Sudbury, was added to the list of communities with long-term advisories in July. The community of roughly 180 on-reserve residents has a new water plant coming online. But, according to Chief Adam Pawis, the technology has put new pressure on the community’s old piping.
“I have a new plant with new pressure and now the pipes are leaking like a sieve,” he said.
Mr. Pawis said his community anticipated the issue, but were told there was no funding.
“We’ve investigated what we need to do and the government’s response is there is no money in the budget, but maybe next year,” he said. “So the community needs to wait a year for clean water. Can you imagine how upset most municipalities would get if they couldn’t drink the water? First thing people would do is call the mayor and eventually someone would be fiscally and criminally responsible. Yet it’s okay in First Nations communities.”
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An Auditor-General report tabled last month found that nine long-term drinking water advisories had been in place for a decade or longer, and that Indigenous Services Canada had made “unsatisfactory progress” towards implementing a number of recommendations the Auditor-General’s office had made years earlier.
One of those recommendations was the creation of a regulatory regime to ensure safe drinking water in First Nations communities. Such provisions were included in Bill C-61, proposed legislation that died on the order paper when the last federal election was called.
Elsewhere in the budget, the Carney government is freezing its annual base funding for Indigenous health and social services, saying this amounts to a 2-per-cent cut for the Indigenous Services department. The government tasked most government departments to come up with a 15-per-cent cut.
Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs also took a 2-per-cent cut. The budget warns that its liabilities have ballooned over the past decade owing to Indigenous claims and litigation settlements, and says it is hard to estimate liabilities for “this important priority.”
With a report from The Canadian Press
