Ending BWA's by 2021 In 2015 Justin Trudeau, committed the Canadian government to end BWA’s by the year 2021. We aim to analyze existing data of BWA’s in Canada per province to compare pre and post commitment data and identify whether progress has been made on this issue.
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❝ We [Government of Canada] will lift all drinking water advisories in First Nations communities within our original five-year deadline.❞ -Prime Minister Justin Trudeau December 6, 2016 ❝ It means if you are a child living on reserve, you should be able to turn on the tap and have clean water come out. Water that you can drink, and bathe in, without fear. ❞ -Prime Minister Justin Trudeau December 6, 2016 |
Background
The highest per capita water related illnesses reported in Canada are from Indigenous communities, and they also report the most long-term water advisories (Reading et al., 2011; White et al., 2012). Nish-can-tug-uh First Nation Ontario, have had to boil their water since 1995 (cite). Indigenous communities have been shown to report tap water related negative health impacts, including gastrointestinal illness, birth defects, and skin conditions including some kinds of cancer (Waldner et al., 2017). Boil water advisories are usually initiated when a biological contaminant such as a bacteria, viruses and parasites are shown to be present in drinking water, so water must be boiled to remove or make these contaminants less harmful (FNHA, 2020). For our project we have chosen to focus on boil water advisories as a measure of Indigenous water safety. However, it is important to keep in mind that many Indigenous community members are also concerned about contaminants that can not be removed or made less harmful with boiling such as: heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals (Waldner et al., 2017). Boil water advisories can also have an economic impact, as families affected by them often resort to purchasing bottled water as a replacement for using their tap water when they are concerned about water safety (Waldner et al., 2017).
Political and policy issues contribute to the complexity of bringing clean water to Indigenous communities. While the provincial governments are responsible for water safety in general, ensuring that First Nations reserves have access to safe water is the responsibility of the federal government (Becklumb et al., 2013; Parliament of Canada, 1867). Since Indigenous access to safe drinking water is a federal responsibility, we have decided to focus on comparing our data to the federal government party in power over time. We would like to mention that Trudeau has recently rolled back his 5 year promise to end boil water advisories due to the Covid-19 pandemic (Thompson, 2020). This is unfortunate news, especially during a global pandemic when clean water is vital. We remain hopeful that the attention being brought to this issue will encourage further action to improve it in the future. The inequities in the access to, provisions of and regulation of drinking water is overbearingly represented in first nation communities. It is of interest to collect, report and analyze available data to put a spotlight on the Indigenous water crisis.
Political and policy issues contribute to the complexity of bringing clean water to Indigenous communities. While the provincial governments are responsible for water safety in general, ensuring that First Nations reserves have access to safe water is the responsibility of the federal government (Becklumb et al., 2013; Parliament of Canada, 1867). Since Indigenous access to safe drinking water is a federal responsibility, we have decided to focus on comparing our data to the federal government party in power over time. We would like to mention that Trudeau has recently rolled back his 5 year promise to end boil water advisories due to the Covid-19 pandemic (Thompson, 2020). This is unfortunate news, especially during a global pandemic when clean water is vital. We remain hopeful that the attention being brought to this issue will encourage further action to improve it in the future. The inequities in the access to, provisions of and regulation of drinking water is overbearingly represented in first nation communities. It is of interest to collect, report and analyze available data to put a spotlight on the Indigenous water crisis.
Research Objectives
Research Question:
What are the most recent trends in Boil Water Advisories (BWAs) in Indigenous communities in Canada?
Against this backdrop, our motivation is to help gain attention to indigenous community’s water quality.
This includes addressing the following Objectives:
The conclusions of these comparisons can assist in the allocation of funding, amendments to policy and prioritize the actions necessary to assist the improvement of water quality in first nation communities.
Hypothesis: The overall hypothesis of this project is that Indigenous Communities experiencing BWAs are not receiving adequate attention from the federal government enough to satiate Health Canada's safe drinking water requirements.
We expect to see an increased number of BWAs between 1997 and 2016. Since this issue is gaining more attention over the last few decades we will see more advisories issued as problem is investigated. Many Indigenous communities reported having issues with access to clean drinking water long before the advisories were set and these advisories can last for years (Human Rights Watch, 2016).
We also tested to see if there was a difference in the number of BWAs and the average duration of the advisory in each Canadian region. We expect to see differences, however we do not know which regions will have more or less. However this information will be valuable in informing the federal government on which regions to focus their efforts.
Lastly we studied the number of BWAs and their average duration in relation to the governing political party of the time. We do not have a prediction at this time as we could see either no difference meaning both parties did not make an effort to fix this issue, or we may see differences which will need to be further investigated. Additionally, we will be looking at specifically long term BWAs and governing political parties to see differences in BWAs that have lasted over a year.
Since our data is the population there will be no need for ANOVAs, confidence intervals and T-test.
What are the most recent trends in Boil Water Advisories (BWAs) in Indigenous communities in Canada?
Against this backdrop, our motivation is to help gain attention to indigenous community’s water quality.
This includes addressing the following Objectives:
- Determine how have the quantity and duration of BWAs in Indigenous Communities regions changed from 1997-2017?
- Analyze the spatial relationship of BWAs regionally.
- Investigate how have the Liberal and Conservative Federal governments differed in their response to BWAs? Has one prioritized them more than the other? Has there been any changes in the number or the length of each BWA in the more recent years?
The conclusions of these comparisons can assist in the allocation of funding, amendments to policy and prioritize the actions necessary to assist the improvement of water quality in first nation communities.
Hypothesis: The overall hypothesis of this project is that Indigenous Communities experiencing BWAs are not receiving adequate attention from the federal government enough to satiate Health Canada's safe drinking water requirements.
We expect to see an increased number of BWAs between 1997 and 2016. Since this issue is gaining more attention over the last few decades we will see more advisories issued as problem is investigated. Many Indigenous communities reported having issues with access to clean drinking water long before the advisories were set and these advisories can last for years (Human Rights Watch, 2016).
We also tested to see if there was a difference in the number of BWAs and the average duration of the advisory in each Canadian region. We expect to see differences, however we do not know which regions will have more or less. However this information will be valuable in informing the federal government on which regions to focus their efforts.
Lastly we studied the number of BWAs and their average duration in relation to the governing political party of the time. We do not have a prediction at this time as we could see either no difference meaning both parties did not make an effort to fix this issue, or we may see differences which will need to be further investigated. Additionally, we will be looking at specifically long term BWAs and governing political parties to see differences in BWAs that have lasted over a year.
Since our data is the population there will be no need for ANOVAs, confidence intervals and T-test.