Manitoba chief invites Indigenous Services minister over for a glass of water

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This article was published 28/04/2022 (1278 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — A federal minister was put on the spot Thursday when a northern Manitoba chief suggested a visit to her First Nation to experience what it’s like to have to boil water before drinking it.

At a news conference to announce that applications are now open to compensate First Nations with long-term drinking-water advisories, Tataskweyak Chief Doreen Spence said federal officials can’t understand her community’s pain.

“You guys don’t see the everyday impacts of what we go through,” Spence said, inviting federal Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu to visit her community 143 kilometres northeast of Thompson.

“Come and see our community so you would get a better understanding, and see first-hand our living conditions… having to not live with clean drinking water all these years. If you really say ‘reconciliation,’ to make it up to us.”

Tataskweyak, also known as Split Lake, will enter its fifth year of having a boil-water advisory on May 17.

In that time, children have developed skin rashes and the community insists cancers have been caused or worsened by the water.

While Ottawa has upgraded its existing water-treatment plant and water quality, elder Eunice Beardy said the chemicals being used give the water a bleach-like taste nobody in Canada’s capital would accept.

“How would they like to have a glass of Javex?” Beardy asked, comparing clean water in Thompson to the dark liquid she sees flowing out of her taps.

“Why is it that other people who come into our communities are treated really well if they’re not native?” she said, adding the Liberals are just the latest government to break its promises.

“It’s time that they heard our people and listen to them — not just give them a little bit just to keep us quiet for a while.”

Spence’s community and two Ontario First Nations filed class-action lawsuits in 2019, which Ottawa settled for $6 billion last December.

The settlement includes $1.5 billion in compensation for people living in communities that were subject to a drinking-water advisory of at least one year between November 1995 and June 20, 2021.

Eighteen of Manitoba’s 63 First Nations qualify for funds.

A handful of Indigenous leaders who spoke at Thursday’s news conference were unimpressed by the terms of the settlement.

“It’s not fair,” Beardy said. “How can you put a limit on when you start getting sick and when you stop? That doesn’t make sense at all. I’m hoping that someday, before it’s my time to leave this earth, I see that clean water for our young people.”

Hajdu said individual compensation will never make up for the harm to people’s lives, but added the government has earmarked funds to end all boil-water advisories “once and for all,” such as by opting for more expensive equipment that will last longer before needing repairs.

“I agree, nobody should have to fight so hard for basic human rights,” she said.

The Trudeau government promised to end all long-term boil water advisories when it was first elected in 2015. So far 132 advisories have ended but there are still 33 active in 28 communities.

Recently, the Liberals pledged to replace existing drinking-water legislation, which Indigenous leaders have argued is ineffective and gives Ottawa too much control.

The settlement claims period is open and people can apply for compensation until next March.

Construction is underway to help solve the other two remaining boil-water advisories in Manitoba which, like Tataskweyak, are northern, Cree communities.

Mathias Colomb Cree Nation should have a new sewage-lift station completed in August, according to Ottawa. “Extreme cold weather, the COVID-19 pandemic, supply-chain issues and site conditions have all delayed completion,” the department said of the community, also known as Pukatawagan.

Shamattawa’s water-treatment plant is undergoing repairs, and Ottawa is helping train more local residents to operate the plant, which should be fully operational in September.

— With files from Canadian Press

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca