Canada has more fresh water than any country and more lakes than the rest of the world combined.
So is it too much to ask that our least advantaged citizens, the elderly in long-term care homes, don’t die en masse of thirst, and that our Indigenous people don’t have to boil their water to keep from being poisoned when they drink it?
Actually, it does seem too much to ask.
I say this because a Canadian military report last week revealed that two dozen patients from long-term care homes in Toronto didn’t die from COVID, as originally thought, but from dehydration. And because the Federal Government reported last month that it will take at least another five years to end water advisories for First Nations. As of last week, there were 52 boil water advisories.
Actually, Ottawa didn’t come out and say this. The Globe and Mail dug it out from government documents filed with the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee. As the Globe noted: “The documents did not say why it would take another five years.”
Part of me is screaming, “Can’t a caregiver offer a fellow citizen a drink of water in order to save their lives?!” Are water filtration systems now so complex that they take five years to plan and build?!”
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