These entrepreneurs are using their canned water to improve access to safe drinking water for Indigenous communities – The Globe And Mail
August 14, 2025
Part of Tyson Wesley and Natasha Commanda’s inspiration for FN Clean Water, a company that sells fresh spring water from the Eastern Ontario Highlands, was purely business. One-fifth of the water Canadians drink comes in bottles, according to the most recent data from Statistics Canada — but none of the companies that sell this water are Indigenous-owned or -operated.
“The ability to buy water is everywhere, it’s so accessible. But there’s not really an Indigenous presence in that marketplace,” Mr. Wesley says. “So, we decided to start a water company but do it a little differently by using cans that are recyclable.”
But FN Clean Water, which launched in 2022, was also personal. Wesley is Cree and grew up in Kashechewan First Nation, an isolated community in Northern Ontario on the west coast of James Bay. He has clear memories of what it was like to live without access to clean water.
