TORONTO — The Federal Court of Canada approved a multi-billion-dollar legal settlement that requires the government to take swifter action to clean up contaminated drinking water on Indigenous reserves and to compensate First Nations for the decades they have gone without access to clean water.
Under the settlement, released by the court late Wednesday, the government will commit to spend at least 6 billion Canadian dollars over nine years to fund water infrastructure and operations on hundreds of reserves, and will pay 1.5 billion dollars in damages to about 140,000 Indigenous people.
In a year that has seen the discoveries of hundreds of unmarked graves of Indigenous children on the grounds of former residential schools, the approval of the settlement is another episode in Canada’s reckoning with the vestiges of colonialism.
Since 1977, the government has been promising to provide Indigenous reserves with water and wastewater systems equal to those enjoyed by most Canadians, but has fallen short of the goal and, in March, missed a deadline imposed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Just a month before that deadline, a government audit found that “Indigenous Services Canada did not provide the support necessary to ensure that First Nations communities have ongoing access to safe drinking water,” adding that almost half of the existing advisories had been in place for more than a decade.
Chronic underfunding of water infrastructure and operations on Indigenous land has resulted in tens of thousands of people living for longer than one year under orders to boil their drinking water for one minute, and some being told that even their boiled water is not safe for consumption or bathing.
Contaminated and dangerous, especially in cases where E. coli. and high levels of uranium are present, the condition of water on dozens of reserves has created a crisis for First Nations who see water as sacred. Families have been forced to buy their own bottled water, or simply drink the contaminated water if they cannot afford to purchase it, which has been linked to gastrointestinal infections, whooping cough, pneumonia and skin diseases on the reserves, according to the court records.
“Canada’s failure to provide safe drinking water has resulted in deep frustration and relationships being tainted by mistrust,” Paul Favel, the federal court judge, wrote in his Dec. 22 ruling, calling the settlement a “turning point for Canada and First Nations.”
Chief Emily Whetung, a lawyer who leads the Curve Lake First Nation in Ontario, said this settlement won’t help all affected Indigenous communities, especially those who experience intermittent water contamination or those served entirely by private wells. But she relished the achievements of the settlement.
“I’m just so thrilled,” said Chief Whetung. “Now that we’ve turned this corner, we can keep going down this road and ensure that we get access to clean drinking water for all First Nations.”
While the settlement was seen as a victory for Indigenous communities, it could also prove to be a political liability for Mr. Trudeau, whose rivals in the recent federal election campaign regularly…
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