119 long-term drinking water advisories in Indigenous communities have been lifted since 2015, but 43 remain.
According to a release by the Parliamentary Budget Officer, Yves Giroux, Canada will need to increase their planned spending if they are to meet their goals.
As part of their 2015 election campaign, the Liberal government promised to end all advisories on First Nations territory within five years.
But at the beginning of this year, they announced that delays relating to Covid and other factors meant that would not be met.
Giroux says that Ottawa has set aside more than enough funds to meet spending requirements to build the infrastructure, but they must do more to help First Nations operate the systems.
According to Giroux’s report, failure to invest the funds quickly enough to help with operation will cost much more in the long term.
He says the longer they wait to fully invest the funds, the more time systems will have to deteriorate, leading to higher costs.
In response, Indigenous Services Canada has increased their support for maintenance and operations from 80 percent, to 100 percent.
Since 2015, more than 5 billion dollars has been invested in to supporting First Nations in acquiring clean drinking water.
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