Thank you.
My question is to the Auditor General.
York Factory First Nation has now gone six weeks without clean drinking water and has declared a state of emergency after their so-called state-of-the-art water treatment plant that was built one year ago failed them, forcing them, like TCN, to pay out of pocket for both testing and clean drinking water. The chronic water shortages have forced the school, the day care and the restaurant to close, and they have been left without proper fire and emergency services during this pandemic right now.
I'm sure we can all agree that this situation is unacceptable.
In your report, you make reference to how woefully insufficient funding to maintain water treatment plants has been. According to the report, the ISC's operation and maintenance funding formula is out of date. What is the government not doing that leads to communities with so-called state-of-the-art water treatment plants being without clean drinking water?