Carney government backs away from decree that First Nations have a ‘human right’ to safe drinking water

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The bill tabled on Tuesday, which was presented after months of calls from First Nations leaders to do so, now reads: “It is declared to be the policy of the Government of Canada to further the progressive realization, for individuals on First Nation lands, of the human right to safe drinking water, as protected by the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.”

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That language also represents a change from Carney’s 2025 election platform that promises to “immediately introduce and pass legislation affirming that First Nations have a human right to clean drinking water.”

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Tabling the 2023 bill came about as part of a class action lawsuit regarding the lack of safe drinking water that was led by three First Nations, two from Ontario and one from Manitoba. Approved by the courts in 2021, that settlement committed the federal government to providing $1.5 billion worth of compensation to individuals who lived without clean drinking water, plus another $6 billion to improve infrastructure on communities.

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It also committed the Trudeau government to develop new water legislation and repeal a 2013 law that was passed by the former Conservative government of Stephen Harper to regulate drinking water standards on First Nations, which leaders roundly criticized for not providing substantial funding to resolve longstanding infrastructure issues.

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As of Tuesday, Gull-Masty says long-term boil water advisories remain in place for 36 communities.

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The Chiefs of Ontario, in a statement on Tuesday, voiced concern over her bill’s shift in rights language, suggesting it was being done to appease provincial concerns around economic development and jurisdiction. The organization, which advocates for the more than 130 First Nations across Ontario, some of which live under boil water advisories, also noted how the earlier version of the bill had been co-developed with First Nations over two years.

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It raised concerns around proposed changes to how the law would allow the minister to designate what water and source water could be designated as part of a “protection zone.” The earlier version of the bill proposed that defining such zones would have to be done in consultations with First Nations as well as provinces and territories, adding that First Nations would be involved in co-developing those regulations.

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The newly proposed bill, tabled just days before Parliament is set to break for summer, meaning debate and changes to the bill would not begin until the fall, does not offer the same level of First Nations involvement.

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“In light of these changes that reduce Canada’s legislated requirements to collaborate with First Nations and involve us in co-development of regulations, we are concerned that the new bill and related process may reflect a prioritization of provincial economic interests and assertions of jurisdiction over First Nations’ health, well-being, infrastructure, and constitutional rights and jurisdiction,” Grand Council Chief Linda Debassige of Anishinabek Nation, said in a statement. 

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Before the bill was reintroduced on Tuesday, provincial environment ministers in both Alberta’s United Conservative Party government and Ontario’s Progressive Conservative party government wrote to Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin last July asking that the Carney government scrap a suite of environmental policies they viewed as blocking resource development, naming the former First Nations water legislation as one they did not want to see reintroduced.

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NDP MP Leah Gazan, who serves as her party’s critic on Indigenous issues and has accused the Carney government of putting up environmental rollbacks, slammed the new bill as weakening protections for water.