Assessing recent federal responses to First Nations drinking water risks : a case study of Ontario

• Main Author: Brown, Brandon
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Indigenous peoples Canada Government relations; Indians of North America Ontario Water-supply Case studies; Drinking water Standards Ontario Case studies; Canada; Indian; First Nations
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/102627

This research paper was completed and submitted at Nipissing University, and is made freely accessible through the University of Toronto’s TSpace repository Over the last decade, several drinking water crises in First Nations have resulted in federal policy changes. In 2006, the federal government announced a 5-year Plan of Action for Drinking Water in First Nations Communities’ to improve safety and accessibility of drinking water in First Nations with the goal to reduce the number of high-risk drinking water systems in First Nations across Canada. However, since 2006, reports generated by the federal government have shown conflicting results regarding the success of the Plan of Action. The aims of this research paper are to explore the spatial and temporal variability of drinking water risk between 2006 and 2010, as well as assess underlying determinants of risk in Ontario using categorical and ordinal data from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) and Health Canada. INAC’s drinking water system risk scores and Health Canada’s drinking water advisory database were obtained through an Access to Information request. Spatial analysis tools within ArcGIS as well as a logistic regression (SPSS) were the methods employed in the analysis. The results indicate that contrary to INAC’s Progress Reports, the overall number of high-risk communities and drinking water advisories has increased in Ontario since the Plan of Action announcement in 2006. While in 2010 there was no clustering of high-risk communities, there was clustering of low-risk communities in southeastern and northwestern Ontario. Other drinking water risk categories appeared to be dispersed randomly throughout Ontario. The logistic regression results indicate that neither funding, nor population size, nor remoteness were strong predictors of high-risk drinking water systems. Yet none of the independent variables were found to be statistically significant. Future research should assess the impact of Bill S-8 on First Nations’ drinking water as well as test the relationship between other determinants of risk, such as the type of water treatment.