Claims process begins for First Nations in drinking water class-action settlement

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This article was published 07/03/2022 (1452 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Eighteen First Nations in Manitoba are eligible for compensation as part of an $8-billion class-action settlement over contaminated drinking water.

A year-long claims process started Monday as part of the national settlement, which was reached in part because of a northern Manitoba First Nation’s legal fight.

Tataskweyak Cree Nation (Split Lake) is one of the lead plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit, which was launched in Manitoba’s Court of Queen’s Bench in November 2019. Now, more than 250 First Nations across Canada, and their 140,000 members, may get financial compensation for being subjected to long-term boil-water advisories without access to clean water.

Tataskweyak and the 2,300 people who live on-reserve have been under a boil-water advisory for more than four years. Stomach illness and skin rashes from contaminated water are common in the community.

Chief Doreen Spence, who has been calling for change for years, couldn’t be reached for comment Monday. As of last year, more than 50 First Nations in Canada were still under boil-water advisories.

Class-action co-counsel Michael Rosenberg commended the First Nations plaintiffs for their courage in standing up against the federal government.

“This is the first day of a future of safe drinking water for class-member First Nations,” Rosenberg said Monday. The Toronto lawyer, a partner at McCarthy Tetrault, is co-counsel along with retired judge Harry LaForme. LaForme is Anishinaabe from Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation in southern Ontario. There was no access to clean drinking water there when he was growing up.

“I remember very vividly, when I was a child, my mother carrying water from the local streams,” said LaForme, who was the first Indigenous appeal-court judge in Canada and is now senior counsel at Olthuis Kleer Townshend Law. He said he couldn’t turn down the chance to work on this case, hoping to right a historic wrong.

“It needed to be fixed… and a lot of it was personal,” he said.

The settlement includes more than $1.8 billion in compensation for First Nations communities and individuals, and $6 billion for construction and upgrading of water-treatment infrastructure.

As part of the settlement, the federal government has legal obligations to provide and maintain safe drinking water for all First Nations communities. Canada agreed to repeal and replace the federal 2013 Safe Drinking Water for First Nations Act with legislation that reflects consultations with Indigenous communities.

The settlement will only compensate communities that were under boil-water advisories for a year or more, but many other First Nations have seasonal water-advisories or short-term contamination issues. Lawyers said they hope this settlement will be a template for other drinking-water disputes.

“I hope this class-action is sort of a guide post for people,” LaForme said. “There is no need to give up if your drinking water issues are different.”

Communities that were under long-term boil water advisories (lasting at least one year between November 1995 and June 2021) have until Dec. 2, 2022 to accept the settlement, and individuals have until March 2023 to make their claims for compensation. More information about the claims process is at firstnationsdrinkingwater.ca.

The Manitoba communities that are eligible include Berens River, Canupawakpa Dakota, Fox Lake, God’s Lake Narrows, Hollow Water, Kinonjeoshtegon First Nation (Jackhead), Lake Manitoba, Little Grand Rapids, Little Saskatchewan, Long Plain, Pauingassi, Pinaymootang (Fairford), Pine Creek, Sagkeeng, Sapotaweyak, Shamattawa, Tataskweyak and Wuskwi Sipihk.

katie.may@winnipegfreepress.com