"Various governments going back decades have postponed dealing with water and sewage problems on Canadian reserves. Or just plain ignored them." (Getty Images/Flickr RF)
Canada holds pride for being one of the most diverse and open societies on the international scale. Of course, that is simply just fancy text on paper. Our beautiful nation of course, still has our shares of issues we don't want to admit.
The whole article this goes over is both the allocation of funds, and the method of correction in attempting to provide clean water on Canadian Reserves. The government reported they plan to provide clean water on Canadian Reserves by 2021, though for decades, various governments had postponed or just ignored the issue. On top of this, government spending has been steadily reduced overtime; the Harper government expenses on water and sewage infrastructure fell from $377 Million to $286 Million (Enright).
Now mainly, this whole issue revolving around the water crisis for the indigenous communities can be overtly categorized as the isolation of minority. For this specific case, The issue of the water crisis is one by the Social apartheid, or for simpler explanation the segregation on the basis of class or economic status. Our indigenous communities are facing a much lower standard of living whilst still living within a first world country such as Canada.
At the same time, it is of note the segregation of the indigenous doesn't inherently apply to individuals; it is most likely that if they moved out of the city, their living situations would probably be much better.
However, going back to the previous idea, the segregation and lack of optimism in dealing with the issue. Under the lens of Conflict Theory, the negligence and reduction of funding for this solution is possibly to invest resources for the interests of the more dominant and/or majority: for example, the situation could be re-imagined as either constructing a railroad leading to a rural area, or to build another subway stop in the city. Thus, while this whole issue can be brought up, without a financial purpose or a majority appeal, this conundrum probably won't be solved for a while.
- William Kwong
Source Can be accessed, here.
