FSIN Wants Injunction On Sewage Treatment Rules

FSIN Wants Injunction On Sewage Treatment Rules

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 10:25

The Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations is calling on the federal government to exempt First Nations from new regulations on wastewater management.

Ottawa plans to introduce legislation before the end of the year that will spell out new guidelines and peformance benchmarks for sewage systems in municipalities and on reserves.

FSIN Vice-Chief Delbert Wapass says the government has failed in its duty to consult First Nations on this matter, because the information sessions the government hosted on this issue didn’t reach all affected First Nations and were held too quickly.

Wapass says First Nations don’t want to enter into anything that might jeopardize their water and fishing rights.

He says the new federal regulations have the potential to impact First Nations’ “inherent and treaty rights to water”, and the FSIN is thus requesting an injunction on the imposition of the regulations until First Nations have been properly consulted.

However, Wapass is hopeful federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice will eventually see things from the First Nations’ point of view.