He added that the federal government should not be responsible for the costs. Rather, the Indian bands themselves should divert budgets for the cleanup. The province with the largest number of sites is British Columbia, with 650, while Ontario has 599. The figures do not include most of the land in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, Mr. Sontrop said, because much of that area is not under reserve. An East Coast Indian chief said yesterday that the problem is not well known among individual band members.
Most people are more worried about housing and other social conditions.
According to the federal government, there were 2,346 contaminated sites on Canadian Indian reserves.