QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Indigenous Services
Access to Safe Drinking Water
May 7, 2026
Welcome, minister. For decades, Indigenous communities have been forced to live without reliable access to safe drinking water, despite repeated calls for action from the Government of Canada. The ongoing water crisis in First Nations communities has drawn international condemnation, with human rights bodies warning that Canada’s failure to ensure safe water constitutes a violation of fundamental human rights.
Some First Nations communities, including Neskantaga First Nation, have lived under long-term drinking water advisories for more than three decades. In the Northwest Territories, multiple communities and schools continue to face serious water quality concerns, including elevated levels of trihalomethanes, coliform bacteria and lead. Yet, when you spoke to the Spring Economic Update, you told Indigenous Peoples to look beyond the sections specifically dedicated to them. You stated, “. . . there’s some bigger conversations that I’m just kind of mulling and trying to go through.” Why is the government still mulling solutions when the water problem is already clearly understood and long-standing?
Minister —
Thank you, senator.
First, I must correct that I was mulling over some of the recommendations that I received from people when I was travelling across the country, asking very important and legitimate questions on water.
I want to point out that 96% of long-term boil water advisories were lifted. The update that I received yesterday was that there are 39 remaining. I didn’t, honestly, check today what the update was, but I want to speak a little to what a long-term boil water advisory is.
There are components of an advisory that are triggered at the community level, and it can be for different reasons. It could be because they are doing infrastructure work, and they must displace earth or displace part of their workspace. A long-term boil water advisory is called as a precautionary measure. It could be because they’re doing repairs on the system, and a long-term boil water advisory is called during that time. There are places like Neskantaga where there are long-term, long-outstanding issues of everything that has occurred in the water space.
I must also point to the fact that there is a lot of trauma because of the history around the relationship to water. I’ve had the opportunity to meet with the Neskantaga Chief and council on two occasions. We’re looking to work with them on supporting them not only in their water space but also in the additional asks that they have that relate to water, because they’re one of the communities that had concerns and considerations around their health clinic.
We are looking at water through a holistic lens at ISC. It is a space where we continue —
Thank you, Minister.
Minister, this week you stated, “. . . water is not just present in communities. Water is present throughout Canada.” If that is the case, are other Canadians living under decades-long boil water advisories, as First Nations have, in some cases since the mid-1990s? Are their children attending schools with lead concerns or their families relying on boiled water for years at a time?
When you speak about harmonizing approaches across Canada, can you explain why Indigenous Peoples have been dealing with unsafe water for generations, often in proximity to resource development, including mines and industrial projects near their waters, yet still do not have the same guaranteed protections and outcomes as the rest of the country?
My comments earlier this week actually related to a national security strategy on water because the issue with water is not only occurring in Canada. In a global context, the UN, on a number of occasions, has issued concerns with regard to water, and has also issued reports about the state of water.
I am, first and foremost, trying to ensure there’s a harmonized approach in looking at water. That means creating space for the Indigenous voice, for the provincial voice and for the federal voice to have a collaborative mechanism that is going to move forward the protection of water, the guarantee of water, the support and security of water.
I come from a riding, where, yes, I have one community that has a boil water advisory, and not even 100 kilometres away a municipality that —
Thank you, minister.
