Indigenous Services Canada is not up to the task to fix drinking water on reserves

When hand-washing is our best defence in the midst of a pandemic, the federal government chose to stall its work on clean water for a portion of its citizens. The pandemic is the reason this file stalled? It’s like saying ‘bleeding’ is a reason not to bandage. It’s ludicrous.

Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller, pictured on the Hill on May 14, 2020. Here’s an idea: let’s put the Indigenous Services Canada in charge of water and infrastructure for Ottawa residents and Parliament Hill. Anybody want to do this? I didn’t think so, writes Rose LeMay. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Opinion

BY ROSE LEMAY

March 8, 2021

OTTAWA—“When it comes to the safety of drinking water, residents of First Nations communities do not benefit from a level of protection comparable to that of people who live off reserves,” reported the auditor general in 2005. The Council of Canadians, meanwhile, declared “little progress w...

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