Reserve is the proper legal term. Here's an article on Urban Reserves. If you are interested in learning more terminology such as "reserve" versus "reservation", please download our Indigenous Peoples: A Guide to Terminology. Topics: Indian Act , First Nations. We have hundreds of articles loaded with tips, suggestions, videos, and free eBooks for you. Happy reading! Indigenous Corporate Training Inc. Readers looking for more detailed information, or who have questions, can sign up for our fee-for-service training.
Also, ICT encourages everyone who reads this information to use their best judgment given their own circumstances, vulnerabilities, and needs, and to contact a consulting or legal professional if you have more specific questions. Join the conversation over on our Linkedin page. Indigenous Relations. In , there were , registered Indians living in Ontario, 44 per cent of whom lived on reserves.
There are also a handful of First Nations in Ontario who, for a variety of reasons, do not have reserve land. As a point of comparison, London , Ontario is km 2. Generally, Cree and Oji-Cree reserves dominate the northern reaches of Ontario. Saulteaux reserves are found east of Lake Superior, near the southern portion of the Ontario-Manitoba border. The Nipissing First Nation is located near the lake of the same name, in central Ontario.
Chippewa, Ojibwe , Odawa , and Mississauga communities are located along the shores of the Great Lakes. Haudenosaunnee reserves are in the southwestern and eastern portions of the province.
Some communities have more than one reserve. Additionally, 34 reserves — all located in Northern Ontario — are only accessible by air or winter roads. The majority of reserves in Ontario are held by Anishinaabe communities, followed by Cree , Haudenosaunee , Delaware and Algonquin. In , there were 27, members of this Haudenosaunee community, 12, of whom lived on reserve. The Mohawks of Akwesasne have the second largest on-reserve population: Of their 12, members , 10, live on reserve.
The rail bridge that passes through Garden River First Nation. Garden River is an Ojibway community located near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Before the arrival of Europeans, First Nations hunted, gathered, and farmed throughout Ontario and the surrounding region. When Europeans began arriving in the early s, First Nations participated in the fur trade and at times warred over access to resources — for example, during the Iroquois , Fox and Dakota wars.
Up until that point, treaties did not mention reserves, although land for the First Nation signatories, along with money and other gifts, was often included as part of the deal. These lands eventually became a part of the reserve system following the creation of the Indian Act in The first treaties in Ontario that directly led to the creation of reserves were the Robinson-Huron and Robinson-Superior treaties of Known collectively as the Robinson Treaties, these agreements were signed with Ojibwe communities along the northern shores of lakes Huron and Superior see Treaties with Indigenous Peoples in Canada.
Treaties in Ontario continued to be signed, and continued to include reserves, until when Canada stopped making treaties. Agreements created during this period were treaties 3 , 5 and 9 , signed with Ojibwe and Cree communities in northern Ontario, and the Williams Treaties the last to be signed in both Ontario and Canada with the Chippewa of Lake Simcoe and Lake Huron, and with the Mississauga of the North Shore of Lake Ontario and central Ontario.
There are several First Nations in Ontario who live on unceded land, meaning that they never gave their territory to the federal government. These First Nations include the signatories of the Robinson Treaties. Unlike the treaties that came after them, the Robinson Treaties did not involve the surrender of the land chosen by the First Nation signatories for their reserves. By comparison, the numbered treaties required First Nations to select reserves from the land that they were giving up.
In addition to signatories of the Robinson Treaties, some First Nations live on unceded land because they refused to sign treaties. Under the Indian Act , all land set aside for the use of a First Nation is treated as a reserve, regardless of whether it is on ceded or unceded territory. There are long waiting lists for housing, and overcrowding is common.
Yet communities cannot increase their housing without upgrades to water and wastewater infrastructure. Finally, the crisis impacts the cultural rights of First Nations persons. According to custom and tradition among many communities, women are the keepers and protectors of waters. Many First Nations persons see water as living, and as a form of medicine.
Not being able to drink the water from their own community is distressing to some. Ceremonies, customary fishing and hunting practices, and ways of teaching children and sharing traditional knowledge are impacted when water is contaminated.
The drinking water crisis on reserves can be resolved, and yet it has persisted for decades. C anada has frequently acknowledged its many challenges in addressing the problem.
Since , the federal government has investigated, made recommendations, and committed funds to remediate the water and wastewater situation on the reserves.
Yet the problem remains acute. Simply put, i nvestments of billions of dollars over decades have not translated into safe drinking water for thousands of First Nations persons living on reserves. A primary contributor to this inertia is the legal discrimination that exists related to the regulation and protection of drinking water for First Nations reserves.
Provincial and territorial regulations governing safe drinking water and sanitation, which operate to protect the health of most Canadian residents, do not extend to First Nations reserves. For decades, the federal government did not take appropriate action to ensure residents on First Nations reserves benefited from equal protection before the law—to this day there are no drinking water regulations on reserve. It is unsurprising, then, that this disparate system of regulations has led to disparate outcomes in access to safe drinking water and sanitation.
Systems have been designed, constructed, and operated on reserves without the kind of legal standards and protections that the government has adopted for all other Canadians. Since , the federal government has used contract law to govern safe drinking water on reserve. But even with contractual clauses in funding agreements between the federal government and First Nations, members of First Nations communities live without comparable protections and access to safe drinking water and sanitation as Canadians living off reserves.
The impact of this can be observed in the duration of water advisories on reserves, even for relatively new water systems. Of the dozens of drinking water advisories in effect on systems in Ontario First Nations, at least 57 of them are for systems less than 25 years old and 12 are for systems less than 15 years old.
In at least two cases, the advisory was put in place within a few years of construction. At least one government contractor raised concerns in the mids that the government was funding systems on First Nations reserves in Ontario that would not be acceptable off reserve. Yet the practice continued, and to date, many reserve systems fall below provincial standards. Under this provision, the Canadian Parliament first passed the Indian Act in , which has been amended many times since but remains in force today.
While the federal government has devolved many social services to First Nations to administer on reserve, it remains the primary source of revenue for communities. In practice, First Nations chiefs and councils are accountable to members on reserve for providing services, including owning and operating water and wastewater systems on reserve.
Their power to govern, however, is significantly limited by the far-reaching role of the federal government instituted by the antiquated and discriminatory Indian Act. Except in rare cases, all capital costs and a portion of operation and maintenance costs for systems come from the federal government.
Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada INAC —the federal department with jurisdiction over reserves— has considerable authority over water and wastewater on reserve. The buck literally stops with INAC, and yet, 36 percent of the drinking water advisories in place in on water systems in Ontario First Nations had been in place for over 10 years.
Part of this can be attributed to unpredictable and often insufficient funding from the federal government to build, operate, maintain, and monitor water and wastewater systems. The federal government does not evaluate the ability of First Nations to make up the difference, despite limited community resources.
INAC faces a number of funding constraints, including a year-old arbitrary cap on base funding growth. The United Nations special rapporteur on the rights to water and sanitation has warned that imposing this type of cap can slow down the progressive realization of human rights, or worse, lead to retrogression. While the budget under Prime Minister Trudeau lifts the cap, its legacy is e nduring, with new investments needed to make up ground lost under the arbitrary scheme.
In addition to regulatory and funding problems, lack of source water protections and government support for private water and wastewater systems contributes to the crisis on reserves.
The quality of source water has a direct impact on drinking water. While water treatment is designed to make source water safe to drink, heavily contaminated source water can make water treatment more difficult and expensive. For the most part, source water protection falls under provincial law in Canada, because the watershed extends outside the reserve. This makes it legally and logistically difficult for First Nations to engage on the issue.
In practice, First Nations cannot effectively carry out their culturally-understood obligation to protect water—either on or off reserve. First Nations leaders raised consistent concerns with Human Rights Watch about the lack of consultation regarding commercial activities that impact their traditional territories and the waters within it.
In many cases, the lakes, rivers, and streams that contribute to the source water for these communities have deteriorated because of pollutants from industries, and growing municipalities. Households dependent on private wells or wastewater systems on reserves are in an even more precarious situation than those served by public water systems. There is no dedicated government funding to upgrade, operate, maintain, or monitor these systems.
Nearly one in five households on reserves in Ontario use these private wells. For the most part, First Nations and these individual households are left to fend for themselves. Canada has an obligation to act to eliminate discrimination in law and fact, and ensure adequate safe drinking water and sanitation on reserves.
While there is no dispute that the government has invested money to address this issue, the fact remains that a significant number of First Nations persons in Ontario cannot drink the water in their homes. The federal government has failed to address factors that contribute to this crisis. I should not have to take them to Winnipeg so that they can have a clean bath. But past failures should not be repeated.
New investments in water and wastewater infrastructure on First Nations reserves should be accompanied by enforceable regulations , sufficient funds for capital, operation, and maintenance costs for community and household systems, and mechanisms to track progr ess. Canada should establish an independent First Nations water commission with authority to monitor and evaluate water policy and outcomes that affect First Nations.
Decades of failure to fulfill the rights to water and sanitation have caused lasting damage to First Nations communities. It is time for Canada to make it safe.
This report is based on research conducted by Human Rights Watch senior researchers in Ontario, Canada between July and April While recognizing the uniqueness of every First Nation community, Human Rights Watch focused its research in five communities that represent a range of demographic, geographic, water or wastewater asset, and resource diversity.
Ninety-nine households, home to people on these 5 First Nations reserves, participated in a Human Rights Watch survey on the rights to water and sanitation. Human Rights Watch conducted surveys with the assistance of community-based researchers.
It also conducted 68 qualitative interviews with individuals or officials living in these communities. In addition, Human Rights Watch researchers interviewed 43 chiefs, councilors, and water operators of other First Nations communities; other environment and water experts; academics; and staff of aboriginal representative organizations. It received special assistance from Chiefs of Ontario to arrange these interviews. Most interviews were conducted in English.
A small number of interviews with elders were conducted in Ojibway or Oji-Cree with English interpretation. Interviews were conducted individually in private settings, except in a few instances where interviewees preferred to speak in small groups.
This report uses pseudonyms for participants in the survey and other interviewees, where requested or appropriate, to protect their privacy. In a few cases, follow-up interviews were conducted telephonically or via Skype. Interviewees provided verbal informed consent to participate. Upon request by the ethics committee of Six Nations of the Grand River Council, survey participants in this community provided written informed consent. Individuals were assured that they could end the interview at any time or decline to answer any questions, without any negative consequences.
All participants were informed of the purpose of the interview, its voluntary nature, and the ways information would be collected and used. Survey questions addressed the core content of the rights to water and sanitation, including the quality, quantity, accessibility, and affordability of water and sanitation. The survey also asked questions on related human rights, including adequate housing, health, and education, and about impacts on caregivers. No interviewee received compensation for providing information.
Human Rights Watch did give a small amount of tobacco to some interviewees, as is customary. Human Rights Watch reviewed documents, reports, policies, and files from multiple sources, including responses to government information requests made by other individuals or organizations.
It compiled existing data on water and wastewater assets, budget allocations, demographics, and water advisories, and analyzed the data for patterns related to high-risk assessments and long-term water quality advisories.
Water advisory and risk data existed at the water and wastewater system level while funding data was available at the band—First Nation—level. In total, Human Rights Watch compiled government data for water systems distributed among communities belonging to distinct First Nations. Data was not available for every variable of every water system.
As of May 23, , no written response was received. Unless otherwise specified, the dollar currency referred to in this report is the Canadian dollar. Residents live in three reserves, each with a unique water and sanitation situation.
The majority of the reserve bordering the city of Sault Ste. The other households have private wells and septic systems. Problems with the well water range from high turbidity meaning cloudiness from particles and high sulfur content to uranium contamination. In the s, INAC relocated the community from its traditional settlements on islands and peninsulas to the southeast of its current location, with the promise of electricity and other services.
Grassy Narrows First Nation learned in the s that a chemical plant tied to a paper mill had dumped 9, kilograms of mercury into its watershed, contaminating its fisheries. The wells have tested positive for high uranium content, and the community water system has tested positive for a cancer-causing chemical that is a by-product of disinfection.
Approximately registered members live on the reserve. The main settlement in the reserve, previously known as Lansdowne House, was relocated beginning in the s, with the promise of better services, including housing, water, and sanitation. The advisory was never lifted. Shoal Lake 40 First Nation is an Ojibway First Nation in Ontario located near the Manitoba border, with of its registered members living on the reserve.
In the early s, in order to pipe water from the lake bordering the reserve to Winnipeg, the city of Winnipeg expropriated a strip of land from the reserve and relocated the community onto a man-made island.
Running water was installed in the community in after the construction of pump houses. A drinking water advisory followed in Since then, the community has relied on bottled water brought to the island by a barge or ice road.
SNGR constructed a state of the art water treatment facility in The facility services households in the town of Oshweken and those close enough to be connected, providing them with piped drinking water and wastewater services. But the majority of SNGR residents still get their water from private wells or cisterns. The construction of the plant did not include a significant expansion of service lines to reach households on private systems.
Approximately to households on the reserve lack access to household water and wastewater services, and rely on trucked water and private outhouses or portable toilets. Most Canadians have easy access to sufficient and affordable clean water and adequate sanitation. Canada has abundant water resources. Average daily residential water use was liters per person in These statistics suggest that most Canadians do not struggle to enjoy their rights to water and sanitation.
There is no private ownership of land on reserves. Some First Nations have established their own land registry-type systems. First Nations range in population size. Some are very small, less than a hundred people. Eighty-one First Nation reserves in Ontario have a population of people or less.
According to the Indian Act , each band has its own governing band council, usually consisting of one chief councilor chief and several councilors.
Band members choose the chief and councilors by elections. The Act requires elections to be held every two years. A member can live off reserve and retain voting rights, but the First Nation will not receive funding for that member.
Likewise, non-band members can live on a reserve. Non-members do not have voting rights and the First Nation will not receive funding for that resident.
In addition, a First Nation is not necessarily coterminous with a reserve. Some First Nations maintain multiple reserves. In practice, First Nations chiefs and councils are accountable to members on and off reserves, and to non-members on reserves.
Their power to govern, however, is significantly limited by the far-reaching role of the federal government under the Indian Act. Human Rights Watch analyzed public drinking water advisory data for Ontario reserves available through Health Canada for most of According to this analysis, the majority of public water systems operated on First Nations in Ontario had at least one water advisory in place during the year, while 20 percent of these were revoked at some point.
According to the data reviewed by Human Rights Watch, no longer-term advisories meaning advisories lasting longer than a year ended in As of December 31, , 80 percent of these water advisories—81 water systems used by 44 unique communities—remained unrevoked.
Several of these communities have been under water advisories for over 15 years. Of the 90 drinking water advisories in Ontario First Nations communities, 55 68 percent have been in place since or earlier, 29 36 percent over 10 years, another 26 32 percent between years, another 16 20 percent years, and 10 12 percent were in place less than a year.
Communities with a population of or less are most affected by drinking water advisories, but not uniquely so. Several larger communities have experienced advisories lasting more than five years.
Aging infrastructure cannot be isolated as the driver for these advisories. Many communities—such as Shoal Lake 40 and Neskantaga First Nations—just received systems for running water in the mids. Only 5 of the systems in Ontario under advisory are 30 years old or older. At least 57 of the community systems under advisory in Ontario were built after , and 12 were built from on, after the notorious Walkerton water contamination crisis in , in which 7 people died from a water-borne Escherichia coli E.
The advisories indicate that there is a risk for or actual contaminants in water on First Nations reserves, including coliform, E. The infrastructure problems, which bring with them a host of physical and social ills, have persisted for many years, and even the government officials responsible for Canada's First Nations admit there has been little to no improvement in recent decades.
Nor [are] perhaps the underlying reasons, particularly, the policy reasons — the fact that we've all inherited an Indian Act that's years old now that isn't serving anybody. Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada AANDC , the federal department responsible for First Nations, said it is committed to improving the quality of life and provision of safe drinking water on reserves, but federal spending has not kept up with need.
The kind of infrastructure that many reserves lack is what is usually provided by municipalities or provinces and territories. But under the Indian Act, this is the federal government's responsibility. But while most Canadians have provincial and municipal codes that guarantee minimum standards in areas such as water quality, First Nations are at the whim of policy, with no legislative framework to fall back on. Gary and Darlene McDougall and their five children share a cramped, cold home with no indoor plumbing in Wasagamack First Nation.
Three generations of the Harper family live in a home on the Wasagamack reserve with no running water and a slop pail for a toilet.
The water problems on the Garden Hill First Nation have caught the attention of the Mennonite Central Committee, which usually works in developing countries.
Also, unlike cities or provinces, First Nations have no tax base and little independent revenue with which to fund infrastructure. While some communities have access to revenue from natural resources or commercial ventures, many are not so lucky and struggle with high rates of unemployment and low individual incomes, which puts more financial responsibility on the bands themselves. As well, the small size of many First Nations communities rules out the economies of scale that can help bring large infrastructure projects on line.
Around , First Nations people live on reserves, but 79 per cent of these reserves have fewer than 1, residents, and 57 per cent have less than residents.
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