Jim Prentice: The Waterboy

Earlier this week, Jim Prentice moved on First Nations water quality with a no-money and no-resources announcement aimed at improving the situation on reserve.

He is an excellent choice as minister, with solid experience in dealing with First Nations issues and an approach which is very similar to Bob Nault, the longest serving INAC minister since Chretien vacated the post back in '74.

But he has drank the departmental kool-aid on the water issue, we can only hope it was bottled and not tap-water.

Indeed, his announcement looks a lot like this announcement, from back '04.

Prentice pushed the notion of making it mandatory for FNs to have certified plant operators. And the backgrounder says that this will be the responsibility of the FN.

But I sure hope Prentice didn't pay much for the consultant to write his backgrounder, which bears a striking resemblance to this backgrounder in '04. I could go on, but.... well, doubtless the department mentionned this in the briefing...

I'm all about re-announcing stuff if you can get away with it, but I'm not sure I'd be re-announcing a Liberal program if I were new Conservative minister.

However, it's a legitimate question that if the Libs had been working on this for almost two years, why no change?

Well, if you read Prentice's list of high-risk communities, and the list from two years ago, you'll notice they don't label the same communities as high-risk. Things are improving.

But the real issue here is not money - or a mandatory code which is already mandatory - it's a human problem.

First, an operator first needs a high school diploma to qualify for the training and certification. Unfortunately, First Nations have the lowest number of high school diplomas of any group in the country, so the talent pool is limited.

Second, if you live on reserve, a place where there is regularly inadequate housing, no jobs, and little opportunity, but you have a high school diploma... do you really want to stay? And if you stay, don't forget you've also got to drink the water.

Third, if you've got the certification and the diploma, you are hot commodity in the job market my friend. So maybe you get more than one offer, maybe an offer for a reserve that's closer to the city and a modern health care, that pays more, has a better school for your kids, where you don't lose you job when the chief loses the election... etc...

There's no easy solution to those challenges. It's hardly a question of a mandatory code. It will require real investment and not necessarily in water quality.

But the Kelowna Accords are off the table ... right?