First nations : a shortfall of $ 3.2 billion for the access to safe drinking water

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QMI agency

Thursday, 7 December 2017 11:57

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Thursday, 7 December 2017 11:57

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OTTAWA – The federal government will invest $ 3.2 billion in additional if he really wants to ensure access of safe drinking water on aboriginal reserves as promised in 2015, estimated by the parliamentary budget officer (DPB).

In a report released on Thursday morning, the guard dog of the government finance calculated that it would invest $ 1.8 billion in procurement and $ 1.4 billion on wastewater treatment, including to replace the decaying infrastructure.

At the present time, Ottawa plans to spend $ 1.8 billion until 2020 for this issue. The DPB believes that the federal government greatly underestimated the necessary expenses, and that these should rather be approximately $5 billion.

These investments would be used to ensure on-reserve services “comparable to those of non-aboriginal communities of similar size, and for that boil water long-term to be eliminated by 2020”.

There are 147 boil water advisories in effect in the indigenous communities in the country. There were 133 at the arrival to power of the liberals.