Call to Action #68

The status is Active (Partial). Responsive activity exists through funded training and capacity-building for First Nations water and wastewater operators, asset-management planning, infrastructure skills development, and Indigenous-led infrastructure advisory support. Indigenous Services Canada’s Circuit Rider Training Program provides training and mentoring for First Nations drinking-water and wastewater operators, and ISC also identifies current and previous initiatives supporting water-operator training, certification, retention, and operations. Broader infrastructure capacity is supported through ISC’s Asset Management Program, which helps First Nations manage, operate, and maintain infrastructure, and through the First Nation Infrastructure Fund, which includes planning and skills-development projects. Indigenous-led and regional institutions, including the First Nations Infrastructure Institute, OFNTSC, and TSAG, provide additional advisory, technical, and training capacity. The technological-infrastructure side is partially supported through Indigenous digital-skills, cybersecurity, and broadband-capacity initiatives, including the First Nations Technology Council, Indigenous Cyber Tech Foundation, and First Mile Connectivity Consortium. However, the evidence does not show a fully funded national model covering rural, remote, and urban Indigenous communities across both physical and technological infrastructure, so the Call is active only in part.