Safe drinking water required - 83 First Nations under boil water, 21 "high risk"
First Nations say regulations, resources needed to protect drinking water
by Melanie Patten, Canadian Press
Published: Tuesday, August 15, 2006
HALIFAX (CP) - Native groups say the quality of water on First Nations reserves will continue to deteriorate unless more resources are given to band councils.
Representatives from First Nations communities in Atlantic Canada also told members of a federal panel Monday that regulatory standards should be set for drinking water on reserves.
There is concern, however, that communities will not be given the funding to match the extra responsibility.
"There's a ton of liability that could potentially fall to bands with no resources to legitimately do that work," Michael Cox of the Confederacy of Mainland Mi'kmaq said after a presentation to the panel.
"To go about creating protocols that are attached to funding agreements and holding bands hostage for that is not a good process."
The three-member independent panel of experts has been travelling across the country holding public hearings since June.
It will submit a report to Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice by September as part of a plan announced in March to improve water quality in First Nations communities.
There were 83 First Nations communities under boil-water orders as of Aug. 4. The Health Department also has a priority list of 21 communities with what it calls "high risk water systems."
There are three reserves with boil-water advisories in effect in Atlantic Canada.
Hundreds of people were evacuated in October from the Kashechewan First Nation in northern Ontario after E. coli was found in water samples.
Water quality on reserves is largely a shared responsibility between First Nations communities and the federal government.
Band councils are responsible for providing communities with clean drinking water, including sampling and testing it.
Indian and Northern Affairs Canada provides funding for construction and maintenance of water treatment facilities, as well as training and certifying operators. Health Canada ensures monitoring programs are in effect.
But Cox said he's concerned about who will be responsible for water quality if new regulations are enacted.
"In my experience, every time I see the Department of Indian Affairs or anybody else doing this it's to limit liability or to get themselves out of liability's path," said Cox, whose organization represents six First Nations communities in Nova Scotia.
The panel said First Nations communities they have heard from across Canada all agree they need more resources.
But panel chairman Harry Swain, director of the Canadian Institute for Climate Studies, said the communities disagree over what regulations should be in effect and how they would be enforced.
"Opinions are all over the block," he said during a break in the hearings. "Some say national, some say absolutely local, some say provincial, regional. Some say we don't need regulations at all."
Andy Nicholas of New Brunswick's Mawiw Council - which represents three First Nations in New Brunswick - said the same regulations should be set across Canada.
"We're talking quality of water here," he said.
"You're not going to have 600 different standards. I think water, air - this is common ground for all of us."
© The Canadian Press 2006