09-07-2025
- Politics
- National Observer
Ontario and Alberta collude to put profits ahead of Indigenous clean water rights
How do Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith really feel about Indigenous rights? Look no further than last week's snub — a deplorable letter asking the federal government to bury the clean water act along with other environmental protections.
The First Nations Clean Water Act or Bill C-61 was designed to mandate safe water supply in First Nation communities, but died on the order paper before April's federal election. Clean drinking water is a basic human necessity that — need we even say it? — almost all non-Indigenous people in Canada take for granted. The federal government pointed out that inequity in its rationale for the bill. 'Currently, First Nations communities do not have legally enforceable safe drinking water protections similar to what is in place in provinces and territories.'
The bill, crafted in consultation with First Nations, aligns with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and gives Indigenous communities rights-based regulatory power to protect their water supplies. Ontario and Alberta's objections to the bill were vague, stating only that it, like other environmental protection legislation, stands to 'undermine competitiveness, and delay project development.'
The letter urging Ottawa to let the bill die is tone-deaf, given that Alberta is pushing for a new pipeline to the West Coast and Ontario is desperate to open up mining in the Northern Ring of Fire region. Both of these undertakings will disrupt Indigenous territories and Prime Minister Mark Carney has promised he won't sign off on any national projects without extensive consultation with Indigenous people. Collusion by the two provinces to advance their economic projects at the expense of a bill so close to the heart of Indigenous people is a disrespectful slap in the face to their prospective partners.
You can bet the spectre of a law enshrining the right of First Nations to protect water sources, which could include some mighty long streams and rivers, is driving the opposition. It's easy to see how a First Nation in the watershed of a proposed Ring of Fire mine might worry about potential water contamination and leverage rights granted by the bill to make sure their concerns were addressed.
There are precedents for mining disasters worldwide, including Canada. When BC's Mount Polley mine tailings pond gave way in 2014, water contaminated with mercury and heavy metals from the copper and gold mine surged through creeks into Polley and Quesnel lakes. The breach polluted salmon runs important to the Northern Secwepemc and Tsilqhot'in First Nations and it took an entire decade until fisheries charges were laid against Imperial Metals Corporation. Now the Xatśūll First Nation is back in court fighting a further raising of the same tailings dam that failed in 2014.
There are also precedents for water pollution concerns scuttling past resource projects. The potential for a catastrophic oil spill expressed by coastal First Nations, environmentalists and others pressured Enbridge to abandon Northern Gateway and led to a moratorium on large tankers using the area's ports. This was not a bad thing — the Exxon Valdez spill off devastated the Alaska coast, wiping out birds and mammals and billions of salmon and herring eggs.
Ontario and Alberta are colluding to quash the First Nations Clean Water Act. It's a terrible look for provinces seeking Indigenous resource development partners, @ writes.
The letter from Alberta and Ontario implies none of this matters as much as rapid resource development. To her credit, federal Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty said the clean water act will be reintroduced in the fall. But the fact that Ontario and Alberta had the gall to try to quash the act doesn't bode well for cooperation they will soon be seeking from First Nations.
Fears by First Nations about water pollution arising from resource development are well-founded. Take, for example, the many residents of Asubpeeschoseewagong and Wabaseemoong, formerly known as Whitedog First Nation, in Northern Ontario still grappling with the devastating effects of mercury poisoning from a nearby pulp mill.
Consider also the Alberta First Nations living along the Athabasca River, downstream of the Fort McMurray oilsands operations. An Alberta Health survey in 2009 found elevated cancer rates among residents, yet it took until last year for the federal government to even commission a full health study.
First Nations have every right to guard their water. Life without potable, running water is no picnic, as a resident of Pikangikum First Nation recently told my colleague Sonal Gupta. People living in this remote Ontario First Nation haul their water in buckets from a nearby lake, breaking through ice to get at it in the winter. 'Daily life is a very, very long day simply because people don't have a direct water source,' said Carolina Budiman, the community's senior health project manager.
Pikangikum's water woes, like most of the 35 First Nation communities that still have long-term drinking water advisories, did not result from industrial pollution — their problem stems from a lack of functional water treatment infrastructure. But the clean water act would force the government to address their concerns, as it should.
The timing of Ontario and Alberta's letter couldn't be worse. Partnering with First Nations on resource development is not just a matter of money. There is a big difference between dickering over the spoils of resource development and nation-building, which includes the right to clean water. One is just cash. The other is a basic human right.
