A group of Ontario chiefs said Wednesday the federal government should immediately reintroduce the clean drinking water legislation that failed to pass before the election was called last spring.
Prime Minister Mark Carney told the special chiefs assembly of the Assembly of First Nations on Tuesday that new drinking water legislation would be introduced in the spring, but Anishinabek Nation Grand Chief Linda Debassige said delaying it until then is "not acceptable."
"First Nations have waited too long," she said, in a press conference on Parliament Hill.
Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty said last summer a new water bill would come this fall but the government appears to be now preparing for that not to happen for several more months.
Bill C-61 had passed second reading and cleared the committee stage in the House of Commons but was not debated at third reading before the 44th Parliament ended for the election. All bills not yet passed die when an election is called.
Debassige said she was involved in the development of Bill C-61, which would have recognized and affirmed the inherent right of First Nations to jurisdiction over water, including drinking water and wastewater, set minimum national standards for the delivery of drinking water and wastewater services on First Nations, and provide funding to meet at least the minimum requirements under a drinking water class action settlement reached in 2021.
Debassige said chiefs have heard the government is looking at removing certain protections that were in the original bill.
“We are hearing that the government is looking at removing source water protection out of the legislation. We're hearing that there will be a removal as it relates to cisterns and wells … the regulations and standards there too,” Debassige said.
The federal government was reporting 38 active long term boil-water advisories on First Nations as of Oct. 15. Twenty-seven of those advisories are in Ontario; the boil water advisory in Neskantaga First Nation has been in place for 30 years.
Neskantaga Chief Gary Quisess said that while the provincial government looks to advance the Ring of Fire mining project on Neskantaga land, people in his community have been for decades using 1.5 litre bottles of water to drink, cook and bathe.
“That’s our homelands, and here we're treated like Third World. I am in the Third World, and here projects are getting to be pushed upon us,” Quisess said.
“We don't have to live like this. A lot of developments get benefit from our lands. And here we are suffering for water.”
Water is among the critical issues being discussed at the special chiefs assembly this week in Ottawa, along with child welfare reform and Canada's new major projects push.
Gull-Masty was set to address the event on Wednesday, when she's expected to discuss proposed changes to the Indian Act after senators made sweeping amendments to a bill that would see an unknown number of new people eligible for status.
Carney spoke at the event Tuesday and promised to meet with Coastal First Nations leaders after chiefs voted unanimously to press the government to uphold the B.C. oil tanker ban and withdraw an agreement with Alberta that clears a path for a new oil pipeline.
Sen. Paul Prosper and former national chief Perry Bellegarde are also scheduled to speak at Wednesday's AFN gathering.
On Wednesday morning, chiefs gathered in Ottawa honoured the late Elijah Harper, a key opponent of the Meech Lake accord.
Harper, a member of Red Sucker Lake First Nation, decried the accord over a lack of consultation with First Nations and famously held up a feather as he voted against debating the constitutional deal in the Manitoba legislature.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
