By Josh Hall | @Vancan19

drop in the bucket

Chiefs of Treaties 6, 7 & 8 displeased with federal budget’s commitment to clean drinking water

Nov 5, 2025 | 3:23 PM

The Chiefs Steering Committee (CSC) on Technical Services, which is a not-for-profit group serving First Nations in Treaty 6, 7, and 8 across the Alberta region, says in a statement Wednesday it is profoundly shocked by the abandonment of Canada to its commitments under its 2024 Treaty Bilateral Table on Water and Related Infrastructure.

Treaty 7 begins at the U.S.-Canada border and takes up most of southern Alberta, up to the Red Deer River where it runs through the middle of Red Deer.

Northward to the Buffalo Lake area, which is north of Edmonton, is Treaty 6 territory; meantime, Treaty 8 takes up all of northern Alberta and stretches into B.C., the Northwest Territories, and Saskatchewan.

The CSC says funding outlined for First Nations is “dramatically insufficient” in addressing the urgent needs in critical infrastructure gaps, particularly around clean water.

“Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first budget is just fancy words on status quo,” says Chief Troy Knowlton, Piikani Nation, Treaty 7 Territory. “The funding for clean water and infrastructure is simply maintaining progress on active projects—including those focused on water advisories—among hundreds of others. It is a small drop in the giant bucket that Canada created.”

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They emphasize that the money allocated represents a mere fraction of the estimated $350 billion required to close the documented gap by the 2030 deadline set by Indigenous Services Canada.

“As we have seen time and again, the Government of Canada is unwilling to follow through on the promises and legal duties they are required to fulfill,” says Chief Sheldon Sunshine, Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, Treaty 8 territory. “This budget does nothing to meaningfully close the enormous gaps that exist, or further First Nations in their road to reconciliation. It is, yet again, woefully inadequate.”

The CSC says it will continue to firmly hold the federal government accountable and demand a revised, funding strategy that matches the scale of the challenges faced by First Nations across Canada.

A fall 2024 report by the CSC shared an update of work related to the federal government’s proposed Bill C-61, or the First Nations Clean Water Act — introduced in December 2023.

That proposed legislation got through second reading and was stranded in the committee phase prior to spring federal election.

This past July, the federal minister for Indigenous Services, Mandy Gull-Masty, said the Liberal government planned to reintroduce legislation to ensure First Nations’ rights to clean drinking water — despite calls from Alberta and Ontario for it to scrap the bill altogether.

According to reporting at that time by the Canadian Press, environment ministers from Alberta and Ontario sent a letter to their federal counterpart calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government to abandon legislation they see as undermining competitiveness and delaying project development.

The newly tabled budget earmarks $2.3 billion over three years, starting in 2026-27, for the First Nations Water and Wastewater Enhanced Program. This means funding for 800 active projects will be maintained.

The Assembly of First Nations (AFN), and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) told the CBC last month that the cost to close the infrastructure gap by 2030 would be $425 billion.

According to the Government of Canada, as of Oct. 14, 2025, and since November 2015, there have been 149 long-term drinking water advisories.

There are 38 active long-term drinking advisories in 36 communities. None of those are in Alberta; most are in Ontario and Manitoba.

There are nine short-term drinking water advisories in Alberta, all issued this year, including two at Beaver Lake Cree Nation, and two in Enoch, among others.

(with files from The Canadian Press)