{"id":264975,"date":"2025-11-06T06:17:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T06:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/264975\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T06:17:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T06:17:09","slug":"first-nations-voice-concerns-over-lower-drinking-water-funding-in-federal-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/264975\/","title":{"rendered":"First Nations voice concerns over lower drinking water funding in federal budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

An Auditor-General report tabled last month found that nine long-term drinking water advisories affecting First Nations communities had been in place for a decade or longer.JONATHAN HAYWARD\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

First Nations leaders say Ottawa\u2019s latest budget keeps drinking water funding at levels that have already failed to end years of broken promises. <\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s<\/a> first budget<\/a> pledges $2.3-billion over three years to provide clean drinking water on First Nations, or around $777-million a year. That\u2019s roughly equivalent to the $800-million a year over two years that former prime minister Justin Trudeau\u2019s government promised in 2024. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis funding will maintain progress on approximately 800 active projects, including those focused on ending remaining water advisories and preventing new ones by upgrading at-risk systems,\u201d the budget document states. <\/p>\n

Since 2015, the government has spent more than $5-billion on water and wastewater projects on First Nations. In that time, 149 long-term drinking water advisories have been lifted, but 38 remain in 36 communities. <\/p>\n

That progress falls well short of the promise Mr. Trudeau made while campaigning in 2015 when he vowed to eliminate all boil-water advisories within five years. It remains the unflattering yardstick by which the Liberal<\/a> government is measured on the issue. First Nations leaders say nothing will improve unless Ottawa adopts a different model for bringing clean drinking water to their communities.<\/p>\n

Nearly a decade after Ottawa pledged safe drinking water for all First Nations, promise remains unfulfilled<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are disappointed to see a funding cut to $777-million from approximately $800-million per year under the previous government in yesterday\u2019s budget,\u201d Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler said in a statement to The Globe. \u201cIn NAN territory alone, the total annual need is at least $300-million per year to bring water and wastewater systems in our communities up to municipal standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

NAN represents represents 49 First Nations in Northern Ontario, 15 of which are under long-term advisories. <\/p>\n

Twenty-four of the 38 remaining advisories are located in Ontario. Abram Benedict, Regional Chief for the Chiefs of Ontario, an umbrella group of all 133 First Nations chiefs in the province, said that in recent years it seems like a new advisory appears for every one that\u2019s lifted.<\/p>\n

At current funding levels, Mr. Benedict said Ottawa can only hope to continue this \u201cwhack-a-mole\u201d approach. <\/p>\n

\u201cI do want to acknowledge there is money in there, that\u2019s good,\u201d he said. \u201cBut sadly, it\u2019s a recommittal to the status quo.\u201d <\/p>\n

Shawanaga First Nation, roughly 150 kilometres southeast of Sudbury, was added to the list of communities with long-term advisories in July. The community of roughly 180 on-reserve residents has a new water plant coming online. But, according to Chief Adam Pawis, the technology has put new pressure on the community\u2019s old piping. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have a new plant with new pressure and now the pipes are leaking like a sieve,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Pawis said his community anticipated the issue, but were told there was no funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve investigated what we need to do and the government\u2019s response is there is no money in the budget, but maybe next year,\u201d he said. \u201cSo the community needs to wait a year for clean water. Can you imagine how upset most municipalities would get if they couldn\u2019t drink the water? First thing people would do is call the mayor and eventually someone would be fiscally and criminally responsible. Yet it\u2019s okay in First Nations communities.\u201d <\/p>\n

Opinion: A \u2018generational budget\u2019 that does little but set federal spending adrift<\/a><\/p>\n

An Auditor-General report tabled last month found that nine long-term drinking water advisories had been in place for a decade or longer, and that Indigenous Services Canada had made \u201cunsatisfactory progress\u201d towards implementing a number of recommendations the Auditor-General\u2019s office had made years earlier.<\/p>\n

One of those recommendations was the creation of a regulatory regime to ensure safe drinking water in First Nations communities. Such provisions were included in Bill C-61, proposed legislation that died on the order paper when the last federal election was called. <\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the budget, the Carney government is freezing its annual base funding for Indigenous health and social services, saying this amounts to a 2-per-cent cut for the Indigenous Services department. The government tasked most government departments to come up with a 15-per-cent cut.<\/p>\n

Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs also took a 2-per-cent cut. The budget warns that its liabilities have ballooned over the past decade owing to Indigenous claims and litigation settlements, and says it is hard to estimate liabilities for \u201cthis important priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a report from The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: An Auditor-General report tabled last month found that nine long-term drinking water advisories…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,66,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-264975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-science","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}