Neskantaga First Nation

Every other day, Derek Moonias drives 15 minutes to the airport in Neskantaga First Nation and fills his pickup truck with cases of bottled water flown in on the dime of the federal government.

Areas in northern Ontario being claimed for rights to critical minerals that may lie beneath ancestral and current territories of Indigenous Peoples.

On a rock-covered beach in the heart of the Ring of Fire in northern Ontario, Alex Moonias gazes east, then north. All he sees is undisturbed land, water and air.

On Thursday and Friday, Neskantaga First Nation will face off in court against the Ontario government over what the nation argues was a flawed consultation on a road that will link the province’s road infrastructure with the Ring of Fire mining region.

Elected leaders from five First Nations in northern Ontario are pushing to meet with Premier Doug Ford before construction on the proposed Northern Link Highway begins.

The federal government has set aside about $1.5 billion to compensate Indigenous people who have been without clean drinking water, the result of a class-action lawsuit initiated by First Nations communities.

The historic settlement could provide compensation to 142,000 individuals and 250 First Nations who were denied access to clean water.

Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller, alongside chiefs of the First Nations behind the lawsuit, announced Friday that they have reached an agreement in principle to resolve the suit outside of court.

NDP MP Charlie Angus blasted the federal government, saying the results of an investigation by Global News, APTN News and the Institute for Investigative Journalism exposed serious concerns with how some construction firms with “bad track records” continue to receive lucrative federal contracts.

An investigation by a consortium of journalists including Global News, APTN News and the Institute for Investigative Journalism exposed complaints about the construction firm originally hired to upgrade the water treatment plant meant to end Neskantaga First Nation’s historic long-term boil water advisory.

In the struggle to provide clean drinking water to residents, many First Nations leaders say they face obstacles of funding, bureaucracy, lack of control and systemic racism.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau walked back a long-standing promise to lift all boil-water advisories in First Nations by 2021 on Friday, pointing the finger at travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.