Mr. Speaker, on June 17 of this year, I put a question, through you, to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. The question was about what additional action we could expect from the government to address the huge deficit in safe drinking water for first nations, particularly in Alberta, where a number of first nations were in such extreme circumstances that they were forced to take the federal government to court.
I would like to take the opportunity today to raise this matter again. I am not going to address the court action, because I know that the response would be “we cannot discuss that matter as it is before the court”, and so it should be. That is where the matter should be resolved. However, there are much bigger issues.
We still have 17 boil water advisories for first nations in Alberta alone. Time after time, when these matters are raised, either by the first nations or by the opposition in this place, we get the same old tired refrain from the government, which is that the federal government has spent a lot of money on first nations, as if that should be some kind of appropriate response. I hate to remind the federal government that it has a constitutional responsibility to meet the needs of first nations. It also has obligations and commitments under treaties, so that is simply not an adequate response.
What the government did was move forward, proposing a law that would regulate safe drinking water for first nations communities. There were a lot of qualms in first nations communities about that, but eventually, when consultations were held, the Alberta first nations of Treaty 6, Treaty 7, and Treaty 8 said that under a number of conditions, they would agree to this law. I will get to that in a minute.
That law did pass in this place. Unfortunately, it is only a framework law, so specific standards to ensure safe drinking water for first nations are still not in place.
Mr. Speaker, perhaps you would like to intervene just for a moment. Across the way, they might have courtesy.