NDP, Greens woo Indigenous vote
Singh vows clean water; May offers new deal
With the front-runners catching their breath, the battle for third place seized the campaign spotlight Saturday as the NDP and the Green party each promised a new deal of sorts for Indigenous Peoples in Canada.
In northern Ontario, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh assailed the Liberal record on improving the lives of First Nations communities as he committed to ensuring universal access to clean drinking water, promising to act faster and more effectively than the Trudeau government.
Not to be outdone, Green Leader Elizabeth May promised in British Columbia that her government would end the era of “colonial oppression” and help to dismantle the Indian Act.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau took the day off from campaigning and Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer made a few brief stops in eastern Ontario, but unveiled no announcements, leaving Singh and May to talk policy for the day.
Singh visited Grassy Narrows First Nation, where residents have dealt with the health effects of mercury poisoning from contaminated water for decades. The federal government and Grassy Narrows have struggled to reach an agreement on building a treatment centre for victims of the mercury from an upstream paper mill, and the chief of the First Nation, Rudy Turtle, is running for the New Democrats against Liberal Bob Nault.
Singh promised an NDP government would immediately spend $19 million to fund the centre, but he also vowed to do “whatever it takes” to ensure everyone has clean drinking water.
“There’s no excuse in 2019, with the wealth we have as a nation, with the technology we have as a country, that we cannot clean this water, ensure that all communities have clean drinking water,” Singh said.
He pointed to a Parliamentary Budget Office estimate of $1.8 billion as the capital costs needed to accomplish that goal, and said the government should “absolutely” be able to find that money to pay for something so important. Singh said there would be no question of immediately providing funding if unclean drinking water was a problem in major Canadian cities, but the government has so far failed to apply the same urgency to reserves.
There are 56 long-term boil water advisories on reserves across the country.
May also discussed Indigenous issues Saturday, promising the Greens would allow communities to opt out of the Indian Act as part of its strategy for reconciliation.
“Greens reject the Indian Act and are committed to dismantling this racist and oppressive legislation in full partnership and with First Nations taking the lead role in the process,” the Green party said in a statement.