By Steve Rennie, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA - Piles of flaming garbage on reserves, and drinking water tinged with raw sewage, are just two possible consequences of weak environmental enforcement in First Nations communities, says Auditor General Sheila Fraser.

In an audit released Tuesday, Fraser takes the federal government to task for not cracking down as hard on environmental hazards on reserves as it does off reserves.

"A healthy environment and control over the management of land and resources are critical to sustainable economic development," Fraser told a news conference.

"Without them opportunities for First Nations to improve their quality of life and approach the standard of health and well being enjoyed in other communities are severely limited."

Fraser's findings come as many First Nations communities are bracing for a second bout of swine flu.

The H1N1 virus hit a number of remote reserves in Manitoba disproportionately hard this spring, in part because the people there live in close quarters and often in less-than-sanitary conditions.

Protecting the environment in First Nations communities is a responsibility of the federal government under the Indian Act. But Fraser's audit pointed the finger at two departments for falling down on enforcement.

"Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and Environment Canada have identified a significant gap between First Nations reserves and Canadian communities elsewhere in the degree to which regulations protect the environment," the report says.

"While the federal government has the authority to regulate environmental threats on reserves, it has rarely used this authority to develop regulations to mitigate environmental threats that are regulated off reserves by provincial authorities."

The audit found garbage often isn't dumped in licensed landfill sites and there's no monitoring of the quality of drinking water or air.

"Off reserves, provincial and municipal regulations and enforcement help to prevent such situations."

The Indian and Northern Affairs Department says there are 365 First Nations in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Ontario whose land is managed by the Indian Act. About 150 of those First Nations have agreements with municipalities to handle their solid waste.

The auditors say they expected the department would have issued at least one landfill permit for the rest of the First Nations. But instead, only 14 permits were issued, all in Saskatchewan.

"This means that about 200 First Nations in these three provinces should have had permits but did not," the report says.

Fraser's audit also found that the Indian and Northern Affairs Department has no idea how solid waste is disposed of in about 80 First Nations communities.

"We found that the department neither promotes not conducts significant surveillance on reserves to look for illegal dump sites or garbage burning and is not equipped to monitor compliance, conduct inspections, or enforce the regulations," the audit says.

Indian and Northern Affairs told the auditors it doesn't issue permits or conduct surveillance partly because the regulations are outdated and the penalties aren't stiff enough.

For example, burning or dumping garbage carries a fine of up to $100 or three months in jail.

The auditors found there are no rules setting out how far a dump can be from a body of water or a residential community, which the provinces regulate off reserves.

Another problem area identified by the auditors is a lack of rules about dumping sewage into water.

The Ontario government, for example, controls how much wastewater from septic systems and sewage treatment plants can flow into ground and surface water.

But the auditors couldn't find similar controls on reserves.

"We found that INAC does not issue permits for sewage treatment and disposal and makes no other effort to apply the existing regulations," the report says.

Both Environment Canada and Indian and Northern Affairs say they don't get enough funding to keep on top of all their commitments.