The SDWF provides educational tools and tips to schools in Saskatoon and beyond, showing students where drinking water comes from and what can be done to ensure safe drinking water for everyone. Some of their educational tools also reference the psychological, emotional and spiritual harms that can come from not having safe drinking water. Hancock said the work they do is in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action 18 and 19, which ask for all forms of government to acknowledge the rights of Indigenous people when it comes to proper health care and close the gaps between First Nations and non-First Nations people in health care outcomes. This includes infant mortality, maternal health, suicide, mental health, addictions, life expectancy, birth rates, infant and child health issues, and chronic diseases.
Battle stations, everyone
Canada has lifted 137 long-term drinking water advisories on reserves since November 2015. That’s equal to 82 percent of long-term advisories in the last seven years, the government claims. Still, the Liberals fell short of their promise to lift all drinking water advisories by March 2021. There are currently 31 long-term advisories still in place in 27 communities. And a document tabled this week in the House of Commons shows the work doesn’t end once an advisory is lifted. According to the document, tabled in answer to a question from Conservative MP GARY VIDAL, four First Nations have seen long-term drinking water advisories recur on five water systems that previously had advisories lifted.
As Canada heads toward vote, Trudeau vulnerable over indigenous policies
Trudeau also promised to end all boil water advisories in indigenous communities by 2020. Fifty-one advisories are still in effect in 32 communities, while 108 have been lifted since 2015, according to official data. "There hasn't been any meaningful progress on their watch" on indigenous issues, said Frank Graves, president of polling company EKOS Research, leaving Trudeau "somewhat exposed" politically.
These First Nations are taking safe drinking water into their own hands
Indigenous Services Canada has announced it won’t end long-term advisories until 2023 at the earliest. In 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau committed to ending all long-term drinking water advisories by March 2021. When that deadline passed, the government recommitted to ending long-term advisories without a target date. This announcement comes as no surprise to many First Nations outraged by the lack of progress on ending drinking water advisories in their communities, and the growing divide and gap that exists between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.
Canada's Indigenous communities remain under boil-water advisories amid Covid-19
Dozens of indigenous communities across Canada have still no access to drinking water more than a year into the coronavirus outbreak as the country’s liberal government has officially failed to deliver on its own five-year deadline to lift all drinking water advisories in First Nations reserves. Canada’s Auditor General Karen Hogan presented a report in February documenting the total failure of successive Canadian governments -- including Justin Trudeau’s -- to provide for Indigenous communities’ most basic needs, insisting that “Access to safe drinking water is a basic human necessity,” according to the US-based World Socialist Web Site (WSWS).
Ottawa lags on promise to end drinking-water advisories for First Nations
Shoal Lake 40 First Nation has been under a drinking-water advisory since 1997. The community’s new water treatment plant, due to come online in the summer, will finally provide safe water. The Trudeau government promised to eliminate all long-term advisories on reserves by March, but dozens still lack access to safe drinking water.
Government Not Meeting Safe Drinking Water Standards
A scathing report has been released by Canada’s Auditor General concerning on-going boil water advisories in First Nations communities. Karen Hogan says the support provided by Indigenous Services Canada has not been adequate to address long-standing problems with safe drinking water for many. Hogan says drinking water notices remain a part of daily life in many aboriginal communities, with almost half of existing long-term advisories in place for more than a decade.