Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Karen Hogan, for being here today and your principals as well.
I would like to focus on your report and what you alluded to it in your opening comments on access to safe drinking water in first nation communities. In your introduction you talk about safe drinking water being vital to the health and well-being of Canadians, including 3,300 first nation communities. Access to safe drinking water can also boost communities' economic growth and help reduce poverty.
You mentioned, however, that to this day many first nation communities live without this assurance that their drinking water is safe. You mentioned that some first nation communities continue to lack access to safe drinking water. I would like to know how many communities those are.
We all know that the federal government promised to address this long-standing issue in 2015. It committed to eliminating all long-term drinking water advisories on public water systems on first nation reserves by, as you mentioned, March 31, 2021. That's in 20 days. Of course, they have not met that commitment, and it is incredibly disappointing.
Back in 2016 the government allocated $2 billion; on November 20, 2020, $1.5 billion in additional funding, and an additional $114 million per year for maintenance. With all of this money invested, Canadians in first nation communities continue to have issues, and it is a national embarrassment.
Of course, there has been progress because $3.5 billion has been invested in this thing, but we still continue to have a long way to go. I'm assuming that the easy fixes were done long ago, but the more costly and more complex cases remain.
Is that the case, Ms. Hogan?