This report presents the range of perspectives from several First Nations across British Columbia on the proposed, and now enacted, Water Sustainability Act.
See Full PDF See Full PDFFirst Nations in Canada face numerous challenges when it comes to water. First Nations experiences with water range from individual and family challenges, including limited or no access to safe drinking water, to broader collective concerns such as exercising aboriginal or treaty rights to hunt, fish or gather. Many changes are in play, centered on the element of water: the implementation of a new federal act regarding drinking water on First Nations reserves; numerous amendments to various federal and provincial environmental laws and regulations; and a recent set of ground-breaking court decisions on First Nations identity, aboriginal title, historic treaties and water. A sense of urgency comes from these developments. Over the last number of decades, First Nations have been negotiating complex and unwieldy relationships (or the absence of relationship) with federal, provincial/territorial and municipal governments regarding water — for spiritual/ceremonial use, domestic use, waste disposal, and economic development; and as a function of treaty and aboriginal rights and title. Over this time, the laws and standards used to frame such relationship(s) have been “mainstream” or Canadian. This thesis proposes that in combination with powerful Indigenous legal traditions, the new constitutional and legislative paradigm signifies a transformative and re-formative shift with regard to First Nations and water.
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First Nations in British Columbia (BC), Canada, have historically been—and largely continue to be—excluded from colonial governments’ decision-making and management frameworks for fresh water. However, in light of recent legal and legislative changes, and also changes in water governance and policy, there is growing emphasis in scholarship and among legal, policy and advocacy communities on shifting water governance away from a centralized single authority towards an approach that is watershed-based, collaborative, and involves First Nations as central to decision-making processes. Drawing on community-based research, interviews with First Nations natural resource staff and community members, and document review, the paper analyzes the tensions in collaborative water governance, by identifying First Nations’ concerns within the current water governance system and exploring how a move towards collaborative watershed governance may serve to either address, or further entrench, these concerns. This paper concludes with recommendations for collaborative water governance frameworks which are specifically focused on British Columbia, but which have relevance to broader debates over Indigenous water governance.
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First Nations communities in Canada are disproportionately affected by poor water quality. As one example, many communities have been living under boil water advisories for decades, but government interventions to date have had limited impact. This paper examines the importance of using Indigenous research methodologies to address current water issues affecting First Nations. The work is part of larger project applying decolonizing methodologies to Indigenous water governance. Because Indigenous epistemologies are a central component of Indigenous research methods, our analysis begins with presenting a theoretical framework for understanding Indigenous water relations. We then consider three cases of innovative Indigenous research initiatives that demonstrate how water research and policy initiatives can adopt a more Indigenous-centered approach in practice. Cases include (1) an Indigenous Community-Based Health Research Lab that follows a two-eyed seeing philosophy (Saskatchewan); .
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Yukon First Nations and the waters within their traditional territories face a variety of socio-political and environmental pressures including the effects of historical and ongoing settler colonialism, global environmental change and mining activity. These communities are in the process of implementing Self-Government and Modern land claim agreements, which contain powerful acknowledgements of Indigenous rights and authorities, including the right to unaltered “water quality, quantity and rate of flow” on Settlement lands (∼10 percent of their traditional territories). Self-governing Yukon First Nations have real, although limited, legal authorities on Settlement Lands including the ability to enact laws that supersede territorial legislation. Through research conducted in partnership with four Yukon First Nations (Carcross/Tagish, Kluane, Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in and White River First Nations), I examine how these Indigenous governments are engaging the authorities acknowledged in Modern Land Claim and Self-Government Agreements to assert their rights and responsibilities to water as a more-than-human relation. In particular, I analyze the potential for the creation of legislation pertaining to water on Settlement Land. I engage with critical Indigenous scholarship to examine the challenges facing these communities and to reveal emerging approaches to Indigenous water governance. More specifically, I analyze the “state-like” bureaucracies that First Nations must develop to assert their sovereignty in this context. While these forms of governance are critiqued for bearing little resemblance to traditional forms of governance, I demonstrate how First Nations exercise self-determination as they strategically navigate these opportunities in order to protect water in a manner, they deem consistent with the values, principles and relationships of Indigenous water governance.
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It is well known that watershed-based source water protection programs are integral to the provision of clean drinking water. However, the involvement of Indigenous communities in these programs is very limited in Canada, which has contributed to the vulnerability of Indigenous source waters to contamination. Through a partnership with an Anishinaabe community, this research aimed to identify challenges and opportunities for communities and practitioners to improve the protection of Indigenous source waters in the province of Ontario. The methodology followed the Indigenous research principles of relationship, respect, relevance, reciprocity, and responsibility. Interviews and a youth focus group were conducted with Indigenous community members and practitioners from industry, academia, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and government. Analysis was conducted using an iterative process to develop codes and themes in the qualitative data analysis software NVivo. Results indicated.
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Canadian Public Administration
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Undergraduate Research in Natural and Clinical Science and Technology (URNCST) Journal
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The International Indigenous Policy Journal
Despite nearly a decade of targeted federal government efforts to provide potable water to First Nations communities in Canada, drinking water advisories and piped-water infrastructure gaps still persist. An in-depth understanding of technical practitioners’ perspectives and experiences with federal policies, programs, and processes (PPP) may provide unique insight into the challenges behind the issues. To meet this objective, we interviewed 16 First Nations technical staff within the geopolitical boundary of the province of Ontario. Results emphasize the role played by federal government-centric principles that shape policy, and the inflexible nature of the program execution format. This study provides a foundation for understanding the policy translation process and indicates action areas to create supportive policy for First Nations drinking water service provision.
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