Access to clean drinking water remains an issue in First Nations communities

WINNIPEG -

As the federal government continues to work to provide all communities with clean drinking water, other communities are still waiting to receive a basic human right.

Located on the shore of its namesake around the Ontario-Manitoba, border, Shoal Lake 40 First Nation has been under a boil water advisory for 24 years.

People there turned to bottled water because what came out of the tap wasn’t safe to drink.

“Big bottles that sometimes weren’t even enough, sometimes we would share,” said Shoal Lake 40 resident Katherine Green.

That has all changed.

On September 15, the community, with funding from Ottawa, opened a brand new water treatment plant. It allows residents to drink from their taps for the first time in nearly a quarter-century.

“As a kid, we used to get water from the lake and I remember the lake being so clear back then that’s a little flashback I had when I was drinking it, said Chief Vernon Redsky. “It was nice and clear, delicious.”

More than 100 years ago, the community was cut off by the aqueduct that supplies water to Winnipeg. While people in the city had safe water to drink, people at the source did not.

“This should never have happened in the first place,” said Federal Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller.

Like many other remote First Nations across the country, University of Calgary Professor Kerry Black says, safe drinking water has been hard to come because of geography, chronic underfunding, and past government policies.

"Many nations being forced and put into areas that are swamplands and low lands areas with inadequate water supply,” said Black. “You can imagine and think back to the time that was done there was reasons for that, areas where there was good water would have been saved and reserved for non-Indigenous people.”

The water treatment system now operating in Shoal Lake is part of a larger effort by the Trudeau Government to lift all long-term drinking water advisories in First Nations across the country.

The federal government says since 2015, more than 117 long-term advisories have been lifted, but there are still around 45 advisories in 32 communities where they persist.

This includes two in Manitoba: Tataskweyak Cree Nation and Shamattawa First Nation.

Shamattawa Chief Eric Redhead says his community has been on a boil water advisory for three years because of an aging facility.

“It’s frustrating because whenever we get one step ahead it seems as though we take two steps back,” said Redhead.

He says upgrades are scheduled for the fall of 2022, a year out.

Redhead says people are losing patience waiting for a basic human right.

“Some of the members, they go out and they get fresh water from the creek and …they know that it is more safe than the water that’s coming from their tap,” said Redhead.

None of this includes the communities faced with persistent short-term boil-water advisories that could last for months at a time.

“We’re still nowhere near the halfway mark in terms of achieving safe clean drinking water, the human right to drinking water for all Indigenous people in Canada,” Said Kerry Black.

While the work is not done, Shoal Lake 40 could be an example of what can be achieved when past mistakes are acted on.

Supplies could not have been brought in to build its water treatment system without Freedom Road. It opened in 2019, paid for by all levels of government, including Winnipeg.

“More opportunities for us that’s coming and I’m really grateful for that I got to see and be a part of that,” said Katherine Green. 

If you are a former residential school student in distress, or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419

Additional mental-health support and resources for Indigenous people are available here.