underfunded

First Nations group in Alberta say program to clean up tarsands is ‘underfunded’

First Nations group in Alberta say program to clean up tarsands is ‘underfunded’

“It’s definitely a concern expressed by community members seeing changes in water, traditional foods and changes in their health. “More data and information is necessary to answer these questions… but there are toxic sludge and tailings ponds here… these leak into the watershed,” said Lepine. Last summer, APTN News reported on a story where Keepers of the Water, an Indigenous environmental group, raised alarm over the proposed dumping of treated tailings pond water from the Alberta oil industry into the Athabasca River.

After years of hauling water, a Treaty 3 First Nation celebrates lifting of long-term boil water advisory

After years of hauling water, a Treaty 3 First Nation celebrates lifting of long-term boil water advisory

People in a First Nation in Treaty 3 in Ontario are celebrating a key step toward clean drinking water, as they lifted a long-term boil water advisory at the beginning of December. Advisories have been in effect on-and-off in Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation since the 1990s, said Chief Clayton Wetelainen, but the most recent advisory had been in effect for more than a year. "The people [living in] residential units are glad because they're tired of hauling in water, and the [advisory] has now been lifted," Wetelainen said.

First Nations workers in Sask. sacrifice wages, vacation to run underfunded water systems

First Nations workers in Sask. sacrifice wages, vacation to run underfunded water systems

Rebecca Zagozewski is the executive director of the Saskatchewan First Nations Water Association, a non-profit organization that works to build First Nations’ capacity to take care and control of their own water services. She says recruitment and retention of water treatment plant operators is a “real problem” on Saskatchewan First Nations, largely because they often can’t pay operators competitive wages.

First Nations-owned water authority pitched to fix chronic drinking water issue

First Nations-owned water authority pitched to fix chronic drinking water issue

Two Indigenous groups in the Atlantic region, the Mi'kmaq and Wolastoqiyik, are pitching a First Nations owned water authority to the federal government and First Nations. "We want to be able, at the end of the day, to turn on the tap and drink a glass of water," said Pictou Landing First Nation Chief Andrea Paul, one of the three current board members for the Atlantic First Nations Water Authority (AFNWA). "Some communities can't do that," she said.