Providing safe drinking water continues to be a challenge in Canadian First Nations communities. In 2011, in Ontario and British Columbia, only 45 percent and 51 percent of 143 and 160 First Nations had water systems with a fully trained certified operator, respectively. The objective of this research was to investigate the issues of operator training, retention, and job satisfaction through semi-structured interviews and surveys of water system operators in Ontario and British Columbia. Operators reported the lack of funding for operation and maintenance, and a lack of support from band council as challenges in performing their jobs. Of those who reported being unsatisfied with their position, wages, hours of work, and lack of funding or support were cited as primary reasons.

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Risk assessment methodologies, specifically water safety plans (WSPs), provide a water operator with a greater awareness of the drinking water system and the hazards that may occur. This brings key issues to the forefront and promotes a proactive approach to drinking water safety. This paper identifies the challenges in completing a WSP and evaluates the robustness of procedures. Experts knowledgeable in drinking water treatment were asked to complete Alberta’s Drinking Water Safety Plan template for a hypothetical community. Findings from use of a condensed version of the WSP are also described, and the resulting risk scores obtained from both methodologies are compared. A high degree of variability between experts’ responses was observed from both; however, trends between responses show that the condensed WSP makes it easier to compare hazards relative to each other, to determine key risk areas that warrant more attention.