Parliament has passed Bill C-37, the First Nations Clean Water Act, creating a federal law to ensure First Nations communities across Canada have access to safe drinking water for the long term.

The bill arrives after years of work by Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) that improved things, but not completely. ISC reported in March 2024 that 144 long-term drinking water advisories had been lifted. By July 2024, the government said there were 70 per cent fewer advisories than in 2015. These improvements often came community by community, usually after upgrading aging water treatment equipment. English River First Nation, for example, lifted its advisory in November 2024 after fixing its water treatment system.

This slow, case-by-case progress — moving forward only when funds became available — is the problem Bill C-37 is meant to address. When advisories get lifted because of money spent on infrastructure, they can come back if the systems that manage and maintain the water aren't strong enough to keep running. The old approach relied mainly on funding agreements and government orders rather than enforceable legal rights. Communities had limited options when service standards dropped or water system repairs got delayed.

Bill C-37 changes that by creating enforceable rules that First Nations can actually use in court.

What the Bill Does

The Act sets water quality standards that apply to First Nations public water systems. This replaces a patchwork of separate agreements with rules that have legal teeth. First Nations can now take the federal Crown to court if drinking water fails to meet standards, rather than only appealing to politicians or relying on broader constitutional cases.

An important piece of the puzzle: provinces run water systems for cities and towns under their own rules, but First Nations on reserve have historically operated separately and with fewer resources. Bill C-37 does not give provincial governments control over First Nations water — instead, it creates a federal standard that puts First Nations governments in charge of their own water systems. Band councils and First Nations governments now have formal authority to oversee water systems on their land. And the federal government's commitment to pay for this is written into law, not just handed out year by year from the budget.

Budget 2025 included funding to support First Nations water infrastructure and clean water access. This money backs up what the new law requires. Tying the money to a legal duty means both are less likely to disappear in future budget cycles.

How the Law Will Actually Work — and What Remains Uncertain

Whether this law truly changes things depends heavily on the details that come later: the specific technical standards that will be written into regulations, how disputes will be resolved when things go wrong, and whether the federal government sticks to its funding promises over time. Laws that create legal rights are powerful, but they work best when backed by enough money for proper water systems to begin with.

There is also the practical question of the advisories still in place. About 30 per cent of the communities that had advisories in 2015 still had them in mid-2024. Bill C-37 does not automatically fix those situations. What it does is change the legal standing of those communities and what the federal government must now do. How quickly those remaining advisories get lifted will depend on when regulations get written and when capital projects get built, not just on the law passing.

First Nations organizations have expressed cautiously optimistic views. They appreciate the rights-based approach but have made clear they will watch the regulations closely. There is an important distinction here: the broad principles are in the Act itself, but the specifics that matter most — what water quality tests must pass, how inspections work, how money gets allocated — are decided later through orders-in-council, which get less parliamentary scrutiny.

For the people working on this file in government and in First Nations, the shift is real. ISC is no longer simply a funding agency handing out money. It is now a compliance partner bound by statute — which changes how its officials account for their work and how First Nations can hold them to account when promises fall short.

The longer view matters here. It took from the 2015 Liberal election campaign promise, through several budget cycles and a 2024 fall economic statement, to finally get legislation in 2026. This timeline shows how long it takes in Canadian federalism to turn a political commitment into a law that actually sticks. Whether this new architecture survives depends on the regulations that get written, the money that actually flows, and how well all the pieces work together — a story that will unfold over years, not in a single parliamentary session.