Minister not promising source water protection in new First Nations clean water bill

Prime Minister Mark Carney promised chiefs at the Assembly of First Nations’ gathering early in December that new clean water legislation would come in the spring.

Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty told The Canadian Press last summer she was committed to reintroducing the previous legislation — despite opposition from the provincial governments in Alberta and Ontario, which warned in a media statement that reintroducing the bill as written would “undermine competitiveness and delay project development.”

Gull-Masty vowed in the summer the new bill would affirm First Nations have a human right to access clean drinking water. She did not explain how that might work after the passage of legislation in June that speeds up the approval timeline for major infrastructure projects and gives cabinet the ability to sidestep some environmental laws.

In a followup interview with The Canadian Press earlier in December, Gull-Masty would not commit to including the same source water protections in the new bill. She also wouldn’t say if she is pushing for those protections around the cabinet table.

“I don’t want to put aside work that has previously been done. I think that’s foundational. But I do think there has to be a component where you are having that regionalized approach,” she said.

“That bill, while it may not have been perfect, I think has really put a lot of opportunity on the table. When we come back in the spring, we will be announcing what the bill is going to look like.”

Carney promised Canadians during the spring election campaign that his government would move rapidly to materially improve their lives.

But many Indigenous leaders say the government’s progress on addressing their own communities’ critical priorities slowed to a crawl over the past 12 months — that 2025 was a lost year for efforts to repair drinking water systems, reform the child welfare system and eradicate tuberculosis in the North.

In early 2016, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled that Ottawa’s chronic underfunding of First Nations child welfare services was discriminatory because it meant kids living on-reserve were given fewer services than those living off-reserve.

The tribunal tasked Canada with reaching an agreement with First Nations to reform the system and compensate those who were torn from their families and put in foster care.

The Trudeau government, following negotiations with the Chiefs of Ontario, Nishnawbe Aski Nation and the Assembly of First Nations, presented a $47.8 billion compensation and reform package in 2024. First Nations chiefs and their proxies voted to reject it that same year; many opposed it because the funding would only be available for 10 years and would be subject to annual reviews.

After the tribunal ordered both sides to present it with new child welfare settlement plans by the end of December, it ended up with two proposals. Ottawa’s would provide $35.5 billion in funding up to 2033-2034, followed by an ongoing commitment of $4.4 billion annually. The First Nations proposal, meanwhile, calls for the co-development of a statutory funding mechanism between First Nations and Ottawa.

Gull-Masty told The Canadian Press she has spent a lot of time analyzing the file, learning what different groups want and thinking through approaches to reform.

“We’re obliged to respond to the tribunal, but we are also obliged to respond to communities that are asking for their own process,” she said.

“As a minister I am not in a space where I can impose an agreement on someone. I have to respect who they are as First Nations … I want to respect the uniqueness, the culture, the language, the needs that people have in serving their kids. So it’s been tough.”

First Nations child welfare activist Cindy Blackstock, who helped launch the initial child welfare case against the federal government nearly 20 years ago, called out the federal government a year ago over its massive backlog of requests for funding through Jordan’s Principle.

Jordan’s Principle is a nearly 20-year-old policy that says First Nations kids’ medical needs should be prioritized before politicians figure out which level of government pays the bill.

Late last year, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ordered the federal government to submit a detailed plan on clearing its backlog of Jordan’s Principle applications. The backlog reportedly stood at 140,000 cases at the time.

Blackstock said the backlog was “just a code word” for the government failing to keep up with its responsibilities to Indigenous children.

Gull-Masty said she is trying to create a dialogue with leaders on the Jordan’s Principle policy and that as a new minister, she is looking for a new approach.

“I am here to show the community I want to work for you,” she said.

As part of a governmentwide cost-cutting exercise, Carney has asked many of his ministers to reduce their departments’ spending by 15 per cent over three years. When his first budget was presented in the fall, it cut Indigenous Services Canada’s budget by only two per cent — something Gull-Masty held up as proof that the prime minister recognized the unique needs of Indigenous communities.

While the department’s budget fared better than others, Indigenous leaders decried a lack of new funding to tackle long-standing health challenges — including tuberculosis in the North — and the sunsetting of other programs that are set to run out of money next year.

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, which represents Inuit communities, said at the time it was “disturbed” the budget didn’t renew funding to tackle tuberculosis. Its president Natan Obed said the previous government under Justin Trudeau was better than Carney’s at working with Indigenous Peoples.

Gull-Masty said provincial and territorial governments have a role to play in the eradication of the disease, which spreads more rapidly in the overcrowded housing prevalent in the North.

“We’ve done work where we were able to kind of flatline what the statistics are showing, but we have to do the additional work of getting those cases down and eliminating TB,” Gull-Masty said.

“I trust him (Obed) when he’s looking for a solution. I’m trying to create that space to give him the opportunity to be able to deliver.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 30, 2025.