City's plan to help Indigenous communities with water services remains up in the air

A city plan to improve water services to Indigenous communities is heading downstream.

Barrie city council approved a motion Monday night to consult with Indigenous communities, including the Barrie Native Friendship Centre and the Barrie Area Native Advisory Circle, on the possibility of dedicating 0.2 per cent of its water and wastewater revenue forecast in the 2022 budget toward Water First, and that organization’s efforts to improve water services in First Nations communities. 

This plan would cost about $100,000, or about $1.77 for the average Barrie household in 2022.

Deputy Mayor Barry Ward said there are still several steps to go before the city funding is approved.

“After consultation with the Indigenous community, I expect there would be a recommendation from the finance and corporate services committee on whether to dedicate 0.2 per cent of next year’s expected water and wastewater revenue to the Water First project for training water plant operators,” he said. “The final decision would not be made until the 2022 city budget is approved.”

The plan also calls for representatives of Indigenous communities to be invited to attend another finance and corporate services committee meeting before December 2021 to provide their feedback on the proposal.

Water First will also be asked to consult with its First Nations Advisory Council and other partners on the proposal. They would then report back to the city before December 2021.

Access Barrie will be directed to enter into a three-year partnership with Water First for the purpose of marketing its organization on future signs along the waterfront, on the Canada Day website section and with appropriate marketing resources.

And finance department staff will investigate an option that would provide residents the opportunity to make a donation to the Water First organization on their water bill.

“If the money is approved by the end of this year, or even early next year, it would be in time for Water First’s fourth apprenticeship program, which would begin some time later in 2022,” Ward said. “The third internship, for First Nations in the Parry Sound-Sudbury-North Bay area, has just got underway and should run about 15 months.

“No decision has been made yet on where the communities which will take part in the fourth apprenticeship will be from," he added 

In August, a similar plan was deleted from council’s agenda after some councillors expressed concerns about consultation with Indigenous groups.

Council instead decided to invite Water First, a Creemore-based NGO (non-government organization), to make a presentation to the city’s finance and corporate services committee (made on Sept. 14) on its program to train young Indigenous people from reserves to become certified in operating a water plant through a 15-month paid apprenticeship, which is where the $100,000 would be spent.

Ward has said about 40 per cent of Ontario’s Indigenous reserves are currently operating under a boil-water advisory.

The city brings in just more than $60 million each year in water and sewer charges, he said, which includes user fees, service charges and rentals — and 0.2 per cent of the revenue equals about $100,000.

The average annual water/wastewater bill in Barrie is approximately $884 annually, meaning Ward’s plan would cost about $1.77 per household.

At budget time, council can decide whether it wants to add it to the bills through a slight increase in rates or just absorb it into the city’s costs for one year only — so future councils can decide whether to continue the contribution.

While the federal government pays for water infrastructure on First Nations, it doesn’t pay to train operators of the systems.

Ward said most Water First graduates return to their communities to work in the water system. The young people get employment, the community gets a better water system and doesn’t have to depend on people coming in from outside to maintain it.

In places such as Walkerton and North Battleford, where failures in the water system resulted in the illness of thousands of people and the death of some of them, the problem wasn’t that they didn’t have a water system. The problem was it wasn’t properly maintained.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission doesn’t specifically call for municipalities to fund water systems on reserves, Ward said, but it did talk about the need for all levels of government, including municipalities and First Nations, to work together in the spirit of reconciliation.