Who is Eligible

If you are a First Nation Reserve with Individual Class Members who ordinarily resided on your Reserve for at least one year between November 20, 1995 and June 20, 2021 while your Reserve was subject to a Long-Term Drinking Water Advisory you are eligible to request funding from Canada to provide your Reserve with the actual cost of constructing, upgrading, operating, and maintaining water and wastewater infrastructure on your Reserve. 

This eligibility is based on the following:

The Settlement

Canada is bound by a national class action settlement agreement dated September 15, 2021, which it entered into with a class of First Nations and their members across the country

The Court Orders

On December 22, 2021, the Settlement was approved in court orders issued by the Federal Court of Canada and the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench 

Canada is Bound

Accordingly, the Settlement binds Canada contractually and by virtue of the Court Orders.

Canada’s Key Obligations Under the Settlement and Court Orders

Canada must fund the actual cost of providing First Nations with safe clean drinking water meeting specific standards of quality and quantity. This is set out in section 9.02 of the Settlement.

9.02  Commitment to Additional Measures

(1) Canada shall make all reasonable efforts to ensure that individual Class Members living on Reserves have regular access to drinking water in their homes…that meets the stricter of the federal requirements or provincial standards governing residential water quality (the “Commitment”). 

a) Such “regular access” shall be of a nature and quantity sufficient to permit all usual and necessary uses of water in a similarly situated  Canadian home including but not limited to drinking water, bathing and personal hygiene, food preparation and dishwashing, sanitation, and laundry; 

2) Canada shall spend at least six billion dollars ($6,000,000,000) between June 20, 2021, and March 31, 2030, to meet the Commitment, at a rate of at least four hundred million dollars ($400,000,000) per fiscal year ending March 31, by funding the actual cost of construction, upgrading, operation, and maintenance of water infrastructure on Reserves for First Nations…

Canada’s obligation to spend at least $6bn between June 20, 2021, and March 31, 2030, to meet the Commitment, at a rate of at least $400m per fiscal year ending March 31, is the minimum Canada must spend – if more money is required for Canada to meet its Commitment more money MUST be spent.  There is no funding cap on this obligation.