The local water delivery man fills drums on Yvonne MacDougall's porch in the Wasagamack First Nation. For $30, the 14-member household gets enough water for four days.
First nations leaders fear thousands of people in northern Manitoba will have to wait another year to get running water in their homes because governments have been dragging their feet and the brief period when pipes and other material can be trucked over winter roads is fast approaching.
More than 40 per cent of the 1,880 first nations homes in Canada that still do not have water service are located in four communities in Island Lake region, about 500 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg on the Ontario border.
In St. Theresa Point, Wasagamack, Red Sucker Lake and Garden Hill, the residents get fresh water by filling pails at the local nursing station. On winter nights, when it is too cold to make a trip to the outhouse, the toilet is a bucket on the floor.
Eric Robinson, Manitoba's Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, said last year that he was willing to consider a partnership with Ottawa to pay for the infrastructure needed to get running water into these homes. Since then, there has been some effort to train apprentices to do required retrofits.
But the actual work to connect the communities to the water supplies has not begun. The plumbing material and equipment has not been ordered. And the deadline to get it onto the trucks that ply the winter ice roads during January and February – the only method of transport for construction supplies in the remote region – is looming.
If the material does not arrive this winter, the local aboriginal leaders say the water hookups will be delayed until at least 2013.
Officials from the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, the regional chiefs organization covering most first nations communities in northern Manitoba, the federal government and the province blame each other for the lack of action.
Yes, there has been some training, said Grand Chief David Harper of the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak. "But we still need the equipment and the funding to purchase the equipment and the retrofit material," he said, and the last day it can be ordered to make it onto this year's ice roads is Dec. 31.
The lack of water is more than an inconvenience, he said. The unsanitary conditions are a health issue.
Diarrhea and skin infections are common in the Island Lake region, but the viruses that sweep through the communities in the winter months are bigger concerns. Last year, there were several influenza deaths among normally healthy adults.
Native leaders in Manitoba say an Ontario-Canada retrofit program that was implemented in 1992 and helped bring water to about 3,800 homes on 35 Ontario reserves could be used as a template in the Island Lake communities.
The Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak has talked to investors in Toronto who are interested in becoming partners in the project, Mr. Harper said. But he needs the funding commitment from the federal government.
Mr. Robinson said government has the obligation to look after the people living on reserve. The people of the Island Lake region are in desperate straits and "needed water, like, 20 years ago," he said Monday. "We need the federal government to make a major investment. And I know that the federal government has a lot of priorities. But Indian people should be a priority as well."
Michelle Yao, a spokeswoman for John Duncan, the federal Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, said the government will continue to work with the Island Lake communities to address their needs.
"We recently provided funding to support Island Lake Tribal Council, which is part of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, in conducting a survey of houses to determine necessary retrofits for water service," Ms. Yao said in e-mail. "This data will help the department, Island Lake Tribal Council and the four communities in working together to plan for future water service requirements. Our government is committed to working with first nations and the province of Manitoba to take action on this important issue."
But Mr. Harper said that action has to take place now. "Everybody should have running water in Canada," he said. "It just doesn't seem to be a priority for the government."