CKDR News continues to ask the important questions as we are exactly one week away from the federal election.
Today we ask the Kenora riding candidates what needs to be done to improve quality of life on Indigenous communities.
Liberal David Bruno says, “So the quality of life by every stretch of the human existence would be clean water, drinking water. A part from that we need infrastructure. Clearly there are communities in our region that don’t even have roads. So let’s start there.”
He says, “I’ve lived in Kiev and Ukraine and I’ve had people ask me ‘You know David you are a Canadian. What a wonderful rich country. Yes, yes it is but why do you have a water problem.’ You have to look at them and scratch your head and say ‘You are right. Why do we have a water problem?’ So yes, that is something that is not lost to the government.”
Bruno adds, “One of my main platforms is to bring high speed internet to connect the world. You know I’ve said this many, many times. When I travel the world and I’ve seen other places where they celebrate their interior, I look back into where I grew-up here in the northwest and I thought ‘you know what, we’ve had our back to our interior.'”
Janine Seymour of the NDP says, “Without things like clean, potable drinking water for First Nations, than where do we go for reconciliation. So, it’s making sure that really basic human rights are afforded to everybody equally before we can move on.”
Seymour says, “Prioritize things like the boil water advisories and in this region, over half of the boil water advisories in Canada are located here in this Kenora riding. So that’s a pretty big issue, not just locally, it’s nationally.”
She adds, “Conversations are so important to have with Indigenous people, communities directly, to ensure that appropriate and immediate action is taken on issues like the boil water advisories.”
Conservative Eric Melillo says the current government has failed to take into account some of the local and unique needs of each community in the region.
“That’s where our focus needs to be when it comes to drinking water and supporting infrastructure development across the First Nations in our riding. There has to be a lot more community focus and community engagement from the federal government.”
Melillo adds, “There’s definitely a lot of work to do and drinking water/infrastructure is greatly important for many communities in our riding and across the country and the Liberals have made some progress in this area, there is no question about that, but unfortunately they have been too slow to move forward on the project.”
Craig Martin of the People’s Party of Canada says the priority for government is providing First Nations with the resources to get clean drinking water.
“It’s not really rocket science. I’m not sure why it’s not been taken care of. But more importantly in the communities we want to create the ability for Indigenous families to own the homes on-reserve and start being able to build up their lives through real equity and real equity that can be passed on through the generations.”
Remi Rheault of the Green party says, “We are people. We need to address and remove the oppressive laws that were put in in the past. We are talking about such things as the Indian Act. That was one of the biggest stains in Canadian government history.”
He adds, “It is a very racist and oppressive Act. It created a lot of hardship for the first people of Turtle Island and it needs to be gone. We need to work together to address the issues and do what is right.”
Voting day is one week from today. (Monday, September 13)
(With Files From Sarah McCarthy)
