Monday, August 9, 2010

Premier's Water Charter Forgets First Nations

On August 6, 2010, the Premiers of all provinces and territories of Canada, through the Council of the Federation, agreed to a Water Charter 'recognizing the collective obligation of Canadians and their governments to be responsible water stewards' and challenged themselves and 'individual Canadians, businesses and governments to reduce water consumption; increase water efficiency; and protect our water quality.' You can find it at
http://www.councilofthefederation.ca/pdfs/Water_Charter_Aug_4_2010.pdf

While this is a positive statement of intent of the signatory governments (and there is much that I could query as to how implementation of the Water Charter will be monitored to ensure that it avoids being nothing more than opportunistic political puffery...but that is for another post), I was dismayed to see that the uniquely challenging water problems facing First Nations was forgotten (or avoided) by the Premiers.

Focussing upon conservation, efficiency, and climate change impacts is not a priority when you are one of the 1 in 5 First Nations that doesn't have basic access to drinkable water. Setting a goal to have all First Nations have the access to water of the same or similar quality as all other Canadians would have been a courageous and appropriate goal. Instead, by their omission, First Nations are treated by the Premiers as part of 'the other', those that reside on federal land and therefore are not a great concern to the provinces, despite the fact that sources of pollution of water often begin off-reserve (meaning, on provincial land) and then flow onto First Nation reserve land to be addressed. And, this despite the fact the First Nations are also citizens of the province or territory in which they reside.