Artist Credit: Chief Lady Bird
Tansi Nîtôtemtik,
This year has flown by! Thank you for following along, and for all your comments, emails, and feedback. It has been a distinct pleasure to share our team’s journey with you.
One highlight of my year was participating in the Kawaskimhon Moot. It was an opportunity for me and my partner to push our imaginary federal response to the limits of existing policies and mandates. I learned that even working within the existing colonial system, there is so much more that the Canadian government could do to support Indigenous communities.
Speaking of support—as of March 31, 2021, there are still 54 long-term drinking water advisories in effect in 34 communities.[1] From 2016 to 2019, the federal government has invested and/or committed billions of dollars to eliminating and preventing long-term drinking water advisories in Indigenous communities.[2] The Government of Canada website states that new water treatment systems take an average of 3 to 4 years to complete.[3] My hope is that subsequent budgets will not stall or cancel the remaining public projects. It is essential that these remaining 34 communities receive clean water infrastructure.
Five years after publication, only nine of the TRC’s Calls to Action have been completed. Reconciliation is not dead (contrary to the musings of a certain national newspaper columnist), it hasn’t even begun. At times I have felt angry and discouraged, and at other times impressed by the progress on the Calls to Action. But at all times I have felt grateful to have this platform to share information about reconciliation efforts (or lack thereof) with the public.
Daily, we are besieged with commentaries and news, and few if any of us have the time to sift through it all. I am glad that this blog will continue next year to help the public filter out untruths and misrepresentations about reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.
This is the final post for the 2020/2021 ReconciliAction YEG team. Please sign up for notifications below to hear from the incoming team in September 2021!
Sincerely,
Teresa
---
Be sure to stay up to date on other happenings with ReconciliAction YEG:
Follow us on Twitter at:@ReconciliYEG
Connect with us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/reconciliActionYEG/
Check out our Instagram at: @reconciliactionyeg
-----
[1] Government of Canada, “Ending long-term drinking water advisories”, online: https://www.sac-isc.gc.ca/eng/1506514143353/1533317130660 [Ending Advisories].
[2] Government of Canada, “Investing in First Nations drinking water”, online: https://www.sac-isc.gc.ca/eng/1606477385487/1606477411854.
[3] Ending Advisories, supra note 1.
