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PM Justin Trudeau's Canada

Ottawa pressed to make good on promise to end all long-term drinking-water advisories for First Nations​


A Globe analysis shows that two communities in Ontario have been on long-term water advisories for more than 20 years. Another 10 First Nations communities in Ontario, two in British Columbia and one in Saskatchewan have been without clean water for more than a decade

From link.

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What I don't understand is how this is hard. These aren't massive communities, and a lot of money has already been directed this way. What exactly is the technical challenge making this difficult? Remoteness? Soil conditions for water lines?
 
Richard White said:
Personally I think Health Canada shouldn't have approved the AstraZeneca vaccine. Europeans are snubbing it, it is not effective against some vaccines and the elderly may not find it very useful.
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It prevents 100% of deaths and hospitalizations. What more do you want? I get the flu shot every year and sometimes it’s less than 50% effective. I know UT has a love-in for things European, but in this case public opinion is your benchmark?
 
W. K. Lis said:

Ottawa pressed to make good on promise to end all long-term drinking-water advisories for First Nations​


A Globe analysis shows that two communities in Ontario have been on long-term water advisories for more than 20 years. Another 10 First Nations communities in Ontario, two in British Columbia and one in Saskatchewan have been without clean water for more than a decade

From link.

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Here's what caught my eye............how disproportionate the number of sites in Ontario is...........

Its not even close....43 sites in Ontario.

Sask/Man are bad relative to their overall population size, but Sask has 7 sites.

Perhaps more notable was zero sites in all of Quebec and Atlantic Canada.

There's something peculiar there.

Are the provinces there intervening directly or by lobbying?
 
I mean, it should be possible to give every household a RO filtration unit for drinking/cooking, even if you can't make the mains water drinkable easily. You can buy a 75 gallon/day (lots for a family for drinking and cooking) RO system for $250 at Home Depot. What am I missing? You can add a UV sterilization system and still be under $1k per household.
 
afransen said:
What I don't understand is how this is hard. These aren't massive communities, and a lot of money has already been directed this way. What exactly is the technical challenge making this difficult? Remoteness? Soil conditions for water lines?
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I suspect there are bottlenecks to planning, construction, and staffing over 100 facilities across the country in remote locations, including delivery systems where there may not even be water pipes in the ground. However it looks like they are making significant progress with the vast majority of them completed, or under construction, that doesn't align with the sensationalism of the news.

Some have had facilities built, but don't have anyone trained to maintain and operate them.

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Not to excuse the government on this file, but I think some context is needed. Drinking water advisories issued by the federal government are often cautionary, often because the system, if there is one, lacks a treatment capability. This would be akin to having an advisory being slapped on most cottage water systems, or, in my case, on our well water system. I notice that Wahta is listed. That community has no 'system', it's ~160 residents are strung along about 10km of Muskoka Rd. 38 on individual wells. Unless there is an inherent problem with the ground water, this would be millions thrown at a problem that doesn't exist. No doubt there are some communities with actual water problems. In some cases, it's not so much the problem with the source water but that it has been tainted by a malfunctioning or inadequate sanitary system.

For the remote communities in n/w Ontario and northern MB and SK, every single system has to have a bespoke design, all supplies and equipment has to be trucked in on winter roads, crew has to be accommodated, and on and on.

I imagine no communities are shown in northern Quebec because they are self governing after Hydro Quebec paid them several billion.
 
Lots of people have properties where the water provision is questionable--think all those cottages on the heavily built up Muskoka lakes. It is generally up to the owner to figure it out, either with their own water treatment or bringing in outside water by the jug or tanker truck (for cisterns). I don't think it is the government's job to sort out water for these properties. So indeed, context is important.

I know cottages on the shore of Lake Erie were being forced to upgrade to water/sewer due to ground water quality concerns. The owners were generally strongly opposed, because it entailed a special assessment-type charge in the tens of thousands to pay for it. It probably was the 'right thing', because many of those cottages were originally designed as 1 season vacation properties and are not more like 3 season or year round homes. And there are a lot of septic systems with very little soil next to wells that would make me squeamish and certainly would not be approved today.
 
Actually, anything that I have seen says the potability of the 'main lakes' (Muskoka, Joseph, Rosseau) is actually not that bad, although because it is surface water it can vary by location and season. One document from the Muskoka Lakes Association tested it (u\k where or how extensively) and found the fecal coliform at around 3/100ml although the official public health position is zero. When we used to go to a family cottage in Haliburton, we drank the water without reservation. I would imagine that most people who have converted their cottage to year-round use likely have a drilled well since keeping a lake system going in the winter is difficult.

A public health unit in Ontario will issue a water advisory for any public (i.e non-single residential) system that is not treated, regardless of any testing results. I suppose in the context of FNTs, the federal government is taking the position that they are the 'landlord' and any single-residence system is public since it is Crown land. I would hazard a guess that water in at least some of the systems on FNTs would, if tested prove potable.
 
picard102 said:
There are also over 400 advisories across the country, these 58 are only getting attention as they are the federal government's jurisdiction, but many non FN have had long term advisories for as long if not longer.
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You're correct. If a community has Reserve status, it falls under federal jurisdiction; otherwise, even though a settlement may be soely populated by First Nation people, they fall under the province. But it doesn't necessarily mean the water is bad, only that it is untreated. If a resort, lodge or group of houses doesn't have a treatment system, they are under an advisory. If it is a private system, they are pretty much on their own.
 
Maybe with our near-future reality of high quality broadband access for remote communities (thanks to satellite internet providers like Starlink), we can have professional oversight of local water system operators with pretty effective telepresence. You still need someone in the community to carry out the work, but it should be possible to do it with close supervision of a professional.
 
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