Closing the gap

A report has found that Ontario First Nation communities will need more than $8 billion to fix infrastructure gaps.

The report by Ontario First Nations Technical Services Corporation reviewed Ontario First Nation communities’ infrastructure needs, which included housing, water mains, roads and operations and maintenance. The review found that all those communities surveyed would need billions of dollars to fix and address these problems.

Many of the communities surveyed had representatives at the 16th annual OFNTSC technical conference at the Valhalla Inn .The three-day conference, which started on Tuesday, focused on addressing the gaps found in the report.

Bob Howsam, executive director of OFNTSC, said they use the conference to train First Nation technicians, technologies and engineers on some of the issues presented in the report.

"The challenges are huge but there are some opportunities obviously with the resource realities in the north and the economic realities in the south," Howsam said. "There are some opportunities to build on partnerships because First Nation communities are a pretty integral part of the economy of both northern and southern communities. (The challenge) is how we harness that, pass all the negativity and huge numbers and bring something positive and move the yard stick forward in terms of where these communities are."

Some projects have started such as a website dedicated to water treatment and waste. Funded by Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, engineers and technicians can view the website and learn how to get certifications for water and wastewater.

Howsam said the website will become available across the country by next week.

"We’re pretty proud of that piece but individual communities and tribal councils are doing some great stuff too around housing and general infrastructure," he said. "There’s lots of positives out there. You have to be optimistic because people are out there and they have needs. We are way ahead of where we were even 10 years ago."

Angus Toulouse, Ontario Regional Chief for the Assembly of First Nation said there are huge gaps in Aboriginal infrastructures and especially surrounding community’s water supplies. The federal government wants to pass a piece of legislation to ensure First Nation communities have good potable water.

Before that can happen, Toulouse said they want a capital commitment from the government to create those systems that will ensure there is clean drinking water.

"We still haven’t sat down with the federal government on how we are going to address just this one component in infrastructure and the huge gap that is there," Toulouse said. "We’re hopeful that the capital commitment and the implementation plan will at least address many of those systems that have already been identified as lacking."

He said Ontario provides about $260 million for First Nation infrastructure but to fix these gaps it will cost $8.8 billion.

"We’re talking about basic things – health and safety," he said. 


   --- Follow Jeff Labine on Twitter: @Labine_reporter