Canada’s new Indigenous Services minister says she is considering what the new timeline should be to remove long-term drinking water advisories in First Nations.
Patty Hajdu enters office with 43 notices still in effect in 31 different communities, primarily in Ontario, but also in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to end all drinking water warnings by 2021 when the Liberals took power in 2015.
Six years later, his administration says it helped end 119 long-term boil water warnings, but failed to meet its own deadline to end all.
A federal government website dedicated to the issue shows that even when some warnings were removed, more were added.
Hajdu says he has not set a new deadline because he is analyzing what barriers exist to ending the remaining 43 and at what stage each community is in in terms of solving problems.
“I’m looking at that now, in terms of what a realistic timeline is, and how we do it in a way that respects some of the constraints that communities have and the priorities that communities have,” he told The Canadian Press in an interview. .
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As he ponders the deadlines for the job, Hajdu says he doesn’t want to commit anyone to “an artificial deadline that won’t really help speed up the job in any way.”
She says that complicating things for some First Nations is their remote location, limiting their window to send construction materials and equipment to get the job done.
Critics of Trudeau’s reconciliation efforts point out that the missed deadline to end all drinking water advisories is proof that it has not followed through on the commitments it made to indigenous peoples.
Hajdu seeks a ‘realistic timeline’ to end First Nations warnings of boiling water. #CDNPoli #BoilWaterAdvisories
Reconciliation remains high on the liberals’ agenda, but when they enter their third term, they do so facing greater scrutiny on progress made compared to announced.
Added to that are stronger calls for justice from Indigenous and more non-Indigenous Canadian communities, after First Nations confirmed the discovery of what are believed to be hundreds of nameless graves of Indigenous children forced to attend schools. residential.
Hajdu says she understands that expectations are high as she assumes her new role, but plans to handle those expectations by being honest about what she and the government can do and “what is not feasible.”
His department is tasked with providing services to First Nations residents living on the reservation, including housing and clean water supplies, mental health, and child welfare support.
He said it is difficult to answer a question about whether the government has done its best to manage expectations to date.
In the early days, Hajdu recalls, there was a desire to get the job done quickly, which, he adds, still exists today.
“I think you get wiser over the years about what some of those major challenges are,” he said of the realities First Nations face, particularly remote ones.
Hajdu, who spent the past two years as Health Minister, said managing that file when the world was overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic helped her prepare for the new job.
During the Liberals’ first term as minister for the status of women, she also assisted in the implementation of the government’s investigation into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.
Now, as the minister overseeing Indigenous Services Canada, Hajdu believes Ottawa has to play the role of facilitator of what First Nations need, and says she hopes her department will focus on promoting their autonomy.
“I’ll do anything,” he said.
“If a First Nation is saying, ‘We have the solution, you haven’t been able to give us the help we need and this is the tangible help we need that will crack the code,’ ‘I want to know what.”
This Canadian Press report was first published on November 11, 2021.
Reference-www.nationalobserver.com