The Globe and Mail reports, “First nations leaders fear thousands of people in northern Manitoba will have to wait another year to get running water in their homes because governments have been dragging their feet and the brief period when pipes and other material can be trucked over winter roads is fast approaching. …If the material does not arrive this winter (by December 31), the local aboriginal leaders say the water hookups will be delayed until at least 2013.”
“More than 40 per cent of the 1,880 first nations homes in Canada that still do not have water service are located in four communities in Island Lake region, about 500 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg on the Ontario border. …Grand Chief David Harper of the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) said that action has to take place now. ‘Everybody should have running water in Canada,’ he said. ‘It just doesn’t seem to be a priority for the government.’ …The lack of water is more than an inconvenience, he said. The unsanitary conditions are a health issue. Diarrhea and skin infections are common in the Island Lake region, but the viruses that sweep through the communities in the winter months are bigger concerns. Last year, there were several influenza deaths among normally healthy adults.”
“Officials from the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, the regional chiefs organization covering most first nations communities in northern Manitoba, the federal government and the province blame each other for the lack of action. …Michelle Yao, a spokeswoman for John Duncan, the federal Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, (says) ‘We recently provided funding to support Island Lake Tribal Council, which is part of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, in conducting a survey of houses to determine necessary retrofits for water service’… The Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak has (now) talked to investors in Toronto who are interested in becoming partners in the project, Mr. Harper said. But he needs the funding commitment from the federal government.”
The Assembly of First Nations and the Council of Canadians have both supported the Alternative Federal Budget’s call for $1 billion to be spent this fiscal year to build, upgrade and maintain water and wastewater infrastructure in First Nation communities (as well as $1 billion in 2012-13 and 2013-14). In both the March 22 and June 6, the Harper government failed to provide the funding necessary to begin to meet the drinking water and sanitation needs of First Nations peoples.
The Council of Canadians will repeat this demand in the 2012-13 Alternative Federal Budget to be released this coming February.
The Toronto Star has reported, “Maude Barlow, Council of Canadians national chair who fought for the UN resolution (on the right to water), urged all First Nations to start using the resolution in their struggles to get the federal government to honour its commitment to provide clean water to aboriginal peoples.” Barlow said at the Assembly of First Nations Assembly annual meeting this past July that the United Nations recognition of the right to water and sanitation obligates Canada under international law to come up with a plan to fulfill that right in First Nations communities that continue to go without clean water and sanitation. Barlow said, “The federal government is in violation of this new international recognition.”
The MKO have stated they plan to ask the United Nations to investigate the violations of their rights imposed by the lack of water.
Given the United Nations recognition of the right to water and sanitation, Canada is required to submit a National Action Plan for the Realization of the Right to Water and Sanitation by February 2013. That same month, the United Nations Human Rights Council will review Canada’s record of meeting its human rights obligations, through what is called a periodic review.
The Council of Canadians has previously expressed our solidarity with the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and the MKO in their demand for the right to water, http://canadians.org/blog/?p=6100.
