Despite years of promises to fix drinking water systems on reserves, including a new $2.3 billion pledge in the federal budget earlier this month, Ottawa is still fighting Shamattawa First Nation and 59 other communities in a class-action lawsuit alleging the government failed to provide clean, safe water.

The remote northern Manitoba community of Shamattawa First Nation has lived under a boil-water advisory since 2019, and its case — part of a national action led by law firms McCarthy Tétrault LLP and Olthuis Kleer Townsend — argues Canada breached its legal duties.