Evidence of meeting #80 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was health.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:25 p.m.
Director General, Safe Environments Directorate, Department of Health
Again, I would defer to my colleagues at Environment and Climate Change Canada.
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Conservative
12:25 p.m.
Director General, Safe Environments Directorate, Department of Health
From a health perspective, again, we work with provinces and territories to ensure that drinking water treatment can ensure safe water delivery to Canadians across the country.
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Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB
Mr. Barbosa, are you aware of the federal government's sustainable development strategy?
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Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB
On page 84 of the Liberal government's 2019-22 strategy, it states, and I quote, “By March 31, 2021, all of the long-term drinking water advisories on the public systems on reserve are to be resolved”. It says, “all of the long-term”.
Has the government fully achieved this target?
12:25 p.m.
Director General, Department of Indigenous Services
There are currently 28 long-term drinking water advisories in Canada on first nations lands.
12:25 p.m.
Director General, Department of Indigenous Services
There are currently 28.
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Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB
Okay. I'll repeat the question.
“By March 31, 2021, all of the long-term drinking water advisories on public systems on reserve are to be resolved”. Is that yes or no? Has that target been fully achieved, yes or no?
12:25 p.m.
Director General, Department of Indigenous Services
If the question is, “Were the timelines met?”, then there are currently 28 long-term drinking water advisories. If the question is—
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Conservative
12:25 p.m.
Director General, Department of Indigenous Services
There are currently 28 long-term—
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Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB
Fully met.... There are 28, so “no” is the answer.
12:25 p.m.
Director General, Department of Indigenous Services
There are currently 28 long-term drinking water advisories in Canada.
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Conservative
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Liberal
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Liberal
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Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB
I find it quite interesting when you're talking about first nations. I have 14 first nations in my riding. I talked to one of them, and it was interesting. All around, there are 38 municipalities as well. It's a very rural area. All those municipalities have a water system, a drinking system, installed, yet the first nations don't. I guess, when they originally went to the municipalities and said, “Hey, can we have some drinking water here?”, they didn't qualify. They wouldn't allow them back into the system. They couldn't bootstrap themselves onto the existing system, so they had to redesign that.
In your work, you said you're starting to find out some things, and there are still 28 left because we haven't met our mandates. Are there any barriers you've identified that we should get on with and get rid of, as a committee, when it comes to water?
12:30 p.m.
Director General, Department of Indigenous Services
I would say that many municipalities and first nations work in partnership in order to share water resources. I spoke about source water protection, but there are also shared infrastructure resources happening across the country. I wouldn't point to your examples as ubiquitous.
I would also point to the fact, maybe going back to the previous questions, that first nations manage their own jurisdictions and their affairs for water. In some cases, first nations want to see their own supply and their own infrastructure built on their own lands, and we are ready to support that, and we do. For each long-term drinking water advisory....
There are 634 first nations in this country—
