Seven homes on the Muscowpetung Saulteaux Nation, approximately 65 kilometres northeast of Regina, were recently evacuated after floodwater from a nearby stream moved in earlier this week. It came after over 100 millimetres of rain fell in the area late Monday and through the day Tuesday. Jim Pratt, an emergency coordinator for the First Nation, told CBC the heavy rain filled the stream with water. When it began backing up at culverts running underneath Township Road 210 — a gravel road upstream from Muscowpetung — it started running over the road. The road and culverts eventually gave way.
Weekend flooding at Pine Creek First Nation destroys 4 homes
Four homes at Manitoba's Pine Creek First Nation were destroyed and 17 were evacuated due to weekend flooding in the low-lying lands between Duck Mountain and the southern basin of Lake Winnipegosis. Derek Nepinak, chief of the Anishinaabe nation about 100 kilometres north of Dauphin, said about 30 people were forced to leave their homes, which have been cut off from the rest of the community and have no access to fresh water or supplies.
How colonial systems have left some First Nations without drinking water
Rebecca Zagozewski, executive director of the Saskatchewan First Nations Water Association, said she has seen contractors save on costs when building water treatment plants on reserves by using obsolete parts and failing to include maintenance manuals, ventilation or chemical rooms, and bathrooms. “Engineering companies will put in their bids obviously as low as they can go,” said Zagozewski.
Clean water for First Nations critical during the COVID-19 pandemic: Activists
Activists in northeastern Ontario fighting for safe, clean water in First Nations communities across Canada are getting tired of broken promises. After five years and millions in spending, the Liberal government announced in early December that it would not fulfill its commitment to end all long-term water advisories on reserves by March 2021. Although some progress has been made – 97 advisories have been lifted since November 2015 – there’s still a long way to go. There are 59 active long-term water advisories in 41 communities across the country, and activists maintain that clean water should be a priority for the federal government, especially during a global pandemic. “Water is a basic human right, and nobody should have to beg for it. This is wrong, and it’s come to the point where I think it comes down to racism,” said Autumn Peltier, a teenage water-rights activist from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory on Manitoulin Island.
Former Neskantaga contractor accused of cutting corners in other First Nations
“They cut corners every day, every day,” said Justin Gee, vice-president of First Nations Engineering Services Ltd. Gee said he encountered these recurring problems while overseeing the work of a construction firm, Kingdom Construction Limited (KCL), building a water treatment plant 10 years ago in Wasauksing First Nation, along the eastern shore of Georgian Bay, about 250 kilometres north of Toronto. “You have to be on them every step of the way,” said Gee, who was the contract administrator on the project. “You can’t leave them on their own.”
Water crisis in First Nations communities runs deeper than long-term drinking water advisories
In October, more than 250 members of the Neskantaga First Nation were evacuated to Thunder Bay after an oily sheen was found on their reservoir. The discovery left the community, located in northern Ontario, without access to running water. The evacuation drew attention to the federal government’s 2015 commitment to end all on reserve long-term drinking water advisories (in place for more than one year) by March 31, 2021. Neskantaga has been living under a boil-water advisory for 26 years.