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Latest news about the Safe Drinking Water Team
A city plan to improve water services to Indigenous communities is heading downstream. Barrie city council approved a motion Monday night to consult with Indigenous communities, including the Barrie Native Friendship Centre and the Barrie Area Native Advisory Circle, on the possibility of dedicating 0.2 per cent of its water and wastewater revenue forecast in the 2022 budget toward Water First, and that organization’s efforts to improve water services in First Nations communities.
Canada’s Public Accounts committee is recommending that the federal government deliver to it a plan to address clean drinking water on First Nations by March 31, 2022. It’s one of four recommendations the committee issued Thursday in the wake of a scathing report by Auditor General Karen Hogan and her appearance before the committee in April. “Overall, Indigenous Services Canada has not provided the support needed to ensure that First Nations communities have ongoing access to safe drinking water,” said Hogan in her opening address to the committee.
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.
