NORTHWEST ANGLE 33 FIRST NATION, ONT.—Jonathan Mallet lies on the frozen surface in the Lake of the Woods.

Moments before, his quad vehicle had flipped him and his sled carrying water jugs onto a thin sheet of ice. With each movement, the water rises from the cracks beneath him.

As he had done most days for years, often with his fiancée and four-year-old daughter, Mallet had been carting dozens of blue jugs filled with clean water from Kenora, Ont., to Angle Inlet in Northwest Angle 33, his isolated reserve in the Lake of the Woods — a community that has relied on bottled water since 2011 because of a long list of water contamination, from E. coli to radionuclides.

It is eight hours there and back often through hostile terrain where there are no roads, only the lake. In the winter, the path takes him over ice, bringing its own risks.

Together, Mallet, his wife and child make an average of up to five trips a week, working through holidays, blizzards and storms. Four-year-old Alessa has been helping haul water as long as she has been alive.

The water haul follows a maze of summer and winter routes. In winter, the quad and a sled are driven across the frozen lake. In summer, the family typically boats across the lake to reach a delivery van parked in Minnesota. A series of dirt roads criss-crosses the international border twice before leading to the company in Ontario that sells them clean water.

In the last few years, they have done this more than a thousand times.

“We (will) drink clean water because I won’t let us drink anything else,” Mallet says. “We are a dying breed.”

In February 2019, Northwest Angle 33 received $9.7 million for a water treatment plant as part of the federal government’s commitment to end long-term drinking water advisories in Indigenous communities by 2021.

But the promise of sustainable clean, drinkable water remains theoretical. A lack of infrastructure — from roads to equipment — has undermined construction projects as it has in many remote communities where First Nations have the longest-standing drinking water advisories. Lack of roads, in particular, means many infrastructure projects, including water treatment plants are delayed, incomplete or go unrepaired for great lengths of time.

“I’m angry with the government for ignoring our requests for a road,” says Northwest Angle 33 Chief Darlene Comegan. “Every construction project we have is incomplete due to delivery delays of materials.”

Even once built infrastructure means the maintenance of water systems will be challenging if not, sometimes, impossible.

“Many First Nations have infrastructure needs and requests for funding across the region greatly outweigh the total allocated budget, currently by over $2 billion,” says Rola Tfaili, a media relations officer for Indigenous Services Canada.

The 2019 federal budget acknowledged that where drinking water advisories have been lifted “without sufficient resources to operate and maintain water and wastewater systems, it is possible that new drinking water advisories may be issued in the future.”

In Northwest Angle, a once thriving community of hundreds has gradually dwindled to a few dozen people amid three long-term drinking water advisories. In the remote Indigenous communities of Lake of the Woods, this is what access to clean drinking water looks like.

On that October day in 2017,​ Mallet, travelling alone, had been delivering clean water to his community near the Manitoba-Minnesota border all day. By the time his quad had flipped him, the sun had set. He sat on the ice clinging to his sled.

Beside him, 1,000 pounds of bottled water lay scattered. His 500-pound quad was tipped on its side.

His foot was pinned under the quad and he was sinking into the lake, the same lake that had claimed the lives of his grandfather, several cousins, and his uncle Rick, whose house he now lives in with Alessa and his fiancée Victoria.

During the winter freeze-up, he usually only hauls small shipments across the lake to avoid sinking. But the stock in the community hall was running low and he had decided to take more than normal.

Mallet eventually unpinned his foot and flipped the quad upright with a thud that caused more water to swamp the ice. Then he piled the water jugs back onto the sled, feeling the ice see-saw beneath him. He made it to land as the ice crackled and caved in behind him. He arrived home safely at midnight.

Funding for the construction of the treatment plant was approved Jan. 27. The community then awarded work to a contractor, who lugged equipment across the lake last month.

A plan for roughly eight people — Mallet’s father among them — to cut down trees and clear a safe path to an old logging road five kilometres away was abandoned, because the muskeg was too soft and the window of opportunity had closed, said Norma Girard, a band councillor for the First Nation.

Project manager Sean Petrus, of Colliers Project Leaders, which is part of the consulting team, says construction is also challenged because of the limited materials available in the community for construction and road maintenance. And the community lacks a reliable power source and experiences intermittent power interruptions.

Whether or not the water treatment plant, once built, can stay functional is another question.

“Servicing the water treatment facility will be dependent on an all-season access road,” says Girard. “To protect the water treatment plant’s ability to run optimally we will need a road.”

“Climate change has effects on timing. Without an all-access road, everything costs more. I cannot reiterate more why a road is most important.”

North of the Northwest Angle reserve, Shoal Lake 40, which is also in the construction phase for a water treatment plant, recently opened a road after receiving funding. “Freedom Road,” as it is known, represents what Shoal Lake chief Chief Erwin Redsky called the first step toward reconciliation between First Nations and Canada.

Shoal Lake 40 has had ​seven long-term boil-water​ advisories, dating back to 1997. In 2016, after the federal government and the City of Winnipeg committed to building the road, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went to Shoal Lake 40 and hauled water himself.

Shoal Lake 40 is also in the construction phase for a new water treatment system.

Northwest Angle 33 has seen no such progress with the Ontario government. There have been no talks about a permanent road and the only commitment has been $18,700 this year for a seasonal road, according to a ministry statement. By contrast, in August, the Indigenous Affairs minister for the Ontario government, Greg Rickford, who is also the minister of Energy, Northern Development and Mines, announced a $200,000 investment for a speedway for his Kenora district in the Lake of the Woods to increase tourism.

Northwest Angle 33 First Nation says they submitted a proposal for a road costing $4.3 million to Indigenous Services Canada in June 2019. And they say they submitted another application to the provincial government.

Road access is only one part of an infrastructure crisis affecting the vulnerable Indigenous communities of the North that do not have clean water. The Assembly of First Nations’ draft policy made recommendations on how to eliminate the disparities between reserves and municipalities and to ensure that engineering industry standards are met on reserves.

In the proposal obtained by the Star, the AFN asks Indigenous Services Canada to “support First Nations on their path to self-determination” by adopting a modern approach to their investments, the same approach used by municipalities across the country, known as asset management.

The AFN wants the federal government to address some of the root causes of the water crisis. This includes adopting an asset-management approach to water systems and infrastructure investments to ensure the water crisis does not repeat itself.

This approach would help to ensure that facilities do not break down and that there is sustainable infrastructure to support the longevity of water treatment facilities.

The current investment models at Indigenous Services Canada are long outdated.

Priorities set in the AFN proposal include sustainable and cost-effective approaches to supporting infrastructure such as power supply and the maintenance and building of bridges and roads.

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The AFN is asking for a five-year plan to revamp the Indigenous Services Canada system.

“As public servants we cannot speak to the decisions of political actors, or speculate about future political decisions,” says Tfaili, the Indigenous Services spokesperson.

The root causes of the water crisis on northern reserves are several, including insufficient infrastructure funding and an ineffective allocation process, according to a 2017 report by the Council of Canadians and David Suzuki Foundation, titled “Glass half empty? Year I progress toward resolving drinking water advisories in nine First Nations in Ontario.”

“The investment from the Liberal government is not enough to address all of these infrastructure gaps that exist within First Nations,” says Vi Bui, water campaigner for the Council of Canadians.

“We want to credit (the Liberal government) for paying attention to this issue in a way no previous government has done, but it is still not enough of a solution to actually end the drinking water crisis.”

Two First Nations — Neskantaga First Nation and Eabametoong First Nation — have called states of emergency in 2019. Neskantaga’s water treatment plant, slated for 2018, has been plagued by delays and equipment failures. They fired their contractor and secured a new contractor last fall.

Eabametoong called a state of emergency in July due to ongoing equipment failures, and after elevated levels of trihalomethanes (THMs) were discovered in its water system. They remain under a boil-water advisory and the plant is under construction.

Fort Severn First Nation declared a state of emergency in March due to water system failures and having no reliable road access to mobilize equipment.

In an audio recording obtained by CBC, Minister of Indigenous Services Canada Marc Miller acknowledged that the lack of reliable road access is an obstacle to meeting the March 2021 deadline to lift all drinking water advisories.

The people who work with First Nations in the North see their perspective forever changed.

Wesley Bova, a professional engineer who works for Matawa First Nations Management, the regional tribal council, has worked up north for the last 15 years.

Daily chores as simple as bathing his children and seeing them take a drink of water remind him that water is taken for granted in Canada. Being Indigenous himself, building friendships with First Nations in the North — and seeing how their children live with boil-water advisories — strengthened his resolve to find a solution.

“When you come here and you see the vast discrepancy in the quality of life it really makes you think and wonder why has this has been allowed to happen,” says Bova.

Matawa communities such as Neskantaga, Eabametoong, Marten Falls, Nibinamik and Webequie have no road access, are separated from each other, and are located hundreds of kilometres from cities. Like Northwest Angle, the stability of the ice roads will decide how construction and repair occur.

“For me, in terms of the money the government committed, the biggest issue yet to be resolved is the operation and maintenance associated with it,” says Bova.

“If we could follow the provincial model, we would be in a good place,” says Bova, referring to an investment approach that focuses on some of the root causes of the water crisis.

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“But having said that, you need money to be able to do that.”

Matawa First Nations have looked elsewhere for help. On March 2, Matawa chiefs announced that they are looking for companies to help them build better community infrastructure.

Indigenous Services Canada says it recognizes that each First Nation has unique infrastructure concerns. However, critics say the current approach is “one size fits all.”

Craig Baker, an engineer with First Nations Engineering Services, has worked with reserves in remote areas with decaying infrastructure and no road access.

In 2013, Baker’s company completed a capital planning study for Northwest Angle 33.

“It’s all about insufficient funding to sustain the infrastructure,” says Baker.

“We have this insanity that’s going on where First Nations may get a 100 per cent grant to build a new water treatment plant, and then they are severely underfunded for O&M (operations and maintenance) so you can’t sustain them.”

Northwest Angle’s water system is one of several systems under the umbrella of the Anishinaabeg of Kabapikotawangag Resource Council that is deemed “high risk” as of 2019, from the most recent annual inspection reports by Indigenous Services Canada acquired through the Access to Information Act.

A lack of reliable roads is a key issue, says Baker.

“When you don’t have road access, the cost to deal with repairs, depending on the type of water treatment plant, for skilled trades to come and do repairs, it’s incredibly expensive. All it takes is one breakdown, where it puts a huge hole in your budget for the year.”

The Northwest Angle is a booming tourist destination supported by the provincial government, but as the years pass, fewer people return to this isolated reserve in the Lake of the Woods. While the District of Kenora has seen more population growth than any other district in northern Ontario, the population of Angle Inlet reserve in Northwest Angle 33 has dwindled to the brink of extinction.

Where hundreds of people once lived, now a little more than 20 people live year-round.

In 2015, a year before Northwest Angle 33 called a state of emergency due to radioactivity in the water, the few remaining residents met to develop a plan to rebuild their community. Building the road was top of their list.

Jonathan Mallet was hired to haul water for his reserve, a year before his daughter was born.

Even if a new water treatment plant does eventually come to the reserve, it will not reach Mallet’s house.

His is one of six homes that were deemed too remote to be connected to a treatment plant, according to the engineering report that recommended they use raw intake water from the lake.

And so, Mallet’s family will continue to haul clean water for themselves long after any new water treatment plant is built.

“It will never be perfect,” says Mallet. “What’s being done is just a Band-Aid.”