Kitigan Zibi Anishinābeg chief hopeful 26-year water advisory will soon end

Ottawa·NewKitigan Zibi Anishinābeg’s chief says he’s hopeful residents of the community who remain under a decades-long drinking water advisory will soon have access to safe, clean water.Health Canada issued advisory over uranium in community’s well water in 1999CBC News · Posted: Dec 09, 2025 3:02 PM EST | Last Updated: 29 minutes agoListen to this articleEstimated 2 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Kitigan Zibi Anishinābeg Chief Jean-Guy Whiteduck said he’s hopeful most homes will be connected to the community’s water system within the next two years. (Alexandra Angers/Radio-Canada)Kitigan Zibi Anishinābeg’s chief says he’s hopeful residents of the community who remain under a decades-long drinking water advisory will soon have access to safe, clean water.Health Canada first issued the advisory for well users in the Algonquin community north of Gracefield, Que., in 1999, citing high levels of naturally occurring uranium in the groundwater.”We were told that the water was dangerous whether we boiled it or not,” said Kitigan Zibi resident Katrina Whiteduck, who was 12 when the advisory was issued and has not had tap water at home since.Prolonged exposure to uranium can affect the kidney and bones.Katrina Whiteduck said she’s frustrated by the long wait for drinkable water, and skeptical it will ever come to her community. (Alexandra Angers/Radio-Canada)The federal government began supplying the community with bottled water, and about a decade after issuing the advisory invested $12 million to connect about 195 homes and 10 other buildings to a new water system.That left about 300 homes — about half the community’s residents — under the original advisory.”They’ll make you wait if you don’t shout loudly enough,” said Gilbert Whiteduck, Kitigan Zibi’s chief from 2008 until 2015. For many residents of Kitigan Zibi, drinking water still comes in large plastic containers like these. (Tristan Strasbourg/Radio-Canada)Efforts to connect more homes to the community water system picked up in 2017. Residents of Devlin Mikan (mikan means road) were connected in April, and Piobig and Waboz mikans are on tap, along with a final cluster of homes along Route 105, according to Chief Jean-Guy Whiteduck.Some homes to the north of the community are too far to be connected, but few have high uranium levels in their water, Whiteduck said.Courts and parliamentary watchdogs have on multiple occasions found the federal government failing in its responsibility to provide First Nations with safe drinking water.Thirty-eight long-term advisories remain in effect in 36 First Nations communities with public water systems. Kitigan Zibi is not included on that list because the problem there involves water from private wells according to Indigenous Services Canada.With files from Radio-Canada’s Alexandra Angers