By Alessia Passafiume Indigenous Services Canada is falling far behind on its efforts to address long-standing health and infrastructure problems in First Nations communities, the federal auditor general said in a report released Tuesday. Auditor General Karen Hogan said despite an 84 per cent increase in its spending since 2019, Indigenous Services Canada continues to struggle to expand access to clean drinking water and emergency services in First Nations communities. She found the department has failed to implement roughly half of the recommendations her office made between 2015 and 2022. Twenty years after the auditor general first raised concerns about First Nations’ access to clean drinking water, 35 long-term drinking water advisories remain in place and nine of them have been active for a decade or more, Hogan found. She…