Empty water jugs hang outside a home on Oct. 26, 2020, in Neskantaga First Nations. The community stands as the country’s longest-standing boil-water advisory and a vivid reminder of a broken Liberal promise as election day approaches.DAVID JACKSON/The Globe and Mail
Nearly a decade after Justin Trudeau promised safe drinking water for all First Nations, empty plastic bottles continue to pile up so high in Neskantaga First Nation that the community doesn’t know where to put them all.
“You see water bottles almost every place you go, just laying around,” says Neskantaga Chief Gary Quisess by phone, the line occasionally crackling with the sound of a plastic bottle in his hand. “I don’t know how it’s going to be cleaned up or addressed.”
The waste has been mounting since 1995, when the water in Neskantaga, located 430 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, was declared unfit to drink. Three decades later, it stands as the country’s longest-standing boil-water advisory and a vivid reminder of a broken Liberal promise as election day approaches.
Since 2015, Ottawa has invested $4.61-billion on water projects and lifted 147 long-term advisories. Despite massive spending, new water issues seem to be arising faster than they can be addressed. In 2025 alone, four new advisories have been added to the tally and zero have been lifted, leaving a total of 35 in place – colouring the Liberal record on reconciliation.
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“I think Justin Trudeau had good intent,” said former Ontario regional chief Isadore Day, who came up with the idea that candidates running in the 2015 election should promise to end boil-water advisories on 93 First Nations within five years. “He had a strong sense of reconciliation, and he did a fair job.”
The original pledge seemed off-hand. During a 2015 town hall hosted by VICE, Mr. Trudeau, then campaigning to usurp Stephen Harper as prime minister, name-dropped Mr. Day.
VICE reporter Natalie Alcoba put him on the spot, asking if he would promise to meet Mr. Day’s five-year timeline.
“In all those 93 communities, yes,” answered the future prime minister.
The clock started ticking.
By December, 2020, failure was imminent. Fifty-nine long-term advisories remained in place and then-Indigenous services minister Marc Miller was forced to admit that the government would fail to meet its leader’s timeline but refused to set new goals.
In 2021, the government settled class-action lawsuits from Neskantaga and other First Nations affected by drinking water advisories. The settlement included $1.8-billion in compensation for impacted First Nations, $6-billion for water infrastructure projects and a commitment to modernize drinking water legislation.
The Liberals followed that up with the First Nations Clean Water Act, which proposed recognizing safe drinking water as a basic human right for all First Nations, setting water quality standards on reserves and helping protect the sources of water flowing onto First Nation lands. The bill died on the order paper when Parliament was prorogued in January.
“We’re advocating for the reintroduction of that bill in its current state or something better,” said Linda Debassige, Grand Chief of the Anishinabek Nation, a political organization comprised of 39 First Nations across Ontario. “Right now Canada’s priorities seem to be elsewhere, and always seems to be elsewhere when it comes to First Nations issues.”
Liberal Party spokeswoman Jenna Ghassabeh told The Globe that Mark Carney “is committed to enshrining into law that First Nations peoples have a human right to access clean and safe drinking water.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has proposed an alternative tax mechanism where First Nations governments can collect taxes directly from resource companies operating on their land and use it to to fund projects such as water infrastructure.
Meanwhile in Neskantaga, residents wait. The First Nation’s online homepage features a ticker enumerating the water advisory’s duration. For 11,035 days, they have been boiling water, filling up water jugs at outdoor osmosis stations year-round and finding places to dispose of the countless water bottles shipped by the government. Twice they’ve had to evacuate over tainted water. Community members find it difficult to trust potable water sources outside the community, even in urban places such as Thunder Bay or Toronto.
Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) funded a water treatment plant upgrade in 2017, but leadership has been adamant that band-aid fixes won’t address the growing community’s long-term water needs.
Former chief Chris Moonias, whose term ended April 1, told The Globe he received a letter of commitment from ISC in February for the design and construction of a new water plant. He said there was also a commitment to address the dozen or so deficiencies in the current plant. Once those are fixed, he said it could be possible to lift the boil-water advisory as construction of the new water plant begins.
ISC spokesperson Ryan Tyndall said in an e-mail that the government is working with Neskantaga to “implement a long-term and sustainable solution that supports reliable access to safe and clean drinking water,” including funding the design of a new water treatment plant project and a 12-point action plan to address the remaining work.
The department says it has already invested $31.5-million in upgrades to the water plant and wastewater system as well as for operational support.
ISC said it’s also funding the development of a First Nations-led “Trust the Taps” initiative for “community healing plan and additional mental wellness program supports.”
If the advisory is ever lifted, rebuilding trust in the taps will take time. “There is trauma and mental health issues associated with this,” said Mr. Moonias.