A demonstrator holds a flag during a protest in front of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario against the federal government’s Bill C-5 on July 1.Wa Lone/Reuters
First Nations leaders participating in a high-stakes meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney about the implementation of the government’s major projects legislation will have to submit questions in advance, according to a note sent to chiefs from the federal government.
The note, which was shared with The Globe and Mail by the Chiefs of Ontario, says the questions will be taken in advance to ensure that the most important concerns are addressed during the summit, which takes place on July 17 at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que.
“In addition to submitting your own questions or topics for discussion, you will also have the opportunity to endorse or upvote questions submitted by others, helping to highlight shared priorities and bring the most pressing issues to the forefront,” says the note, which asks that the questions be submitted by 23:59 p.m. ET on Wednesday, July 16.
The July 17 meeting with First Nations is part of a series that Mr. Carney will conduct with Indigenous peoples over the implementation of Bill C-5, which passed into law last month. Part of that bill allows the federal cabinet to put proposed projects on a national-interest list, which would exempt them from various legal requirements to speed up approvals.
Planning for meetings with Inuit and Métis are under way, the Privy Council Office said earlier this week.
Ottawa sped through law to fast-track major projects, but implementation is going slower
The government has maintained that Indigenous groups whose rights could be affected by the projects will be fully consulted at key stages. Several Indigenous leaders have said they are not opposed to development, but are concerned that Bill C-5 could trample on their rights.
First Nations in particular have been vocal with their concerns, saying there could be action to protest Bill C-5 this summer.
The meeting with First Nations starts July 16 with an afternoon technical briefing on Bill C-5 from government officials, according to a draft agenda shared with The Globe and Mail by the Chiefs of Ontario.
The full-day July 17 meeting will include four “working sessions” that are between 60 and 90 minutes on several topics: open dialogue on meaningful consultation; the major projects office and the Indigenous advisory council; and First Nations economic prosperity and partnership.
The last session – titled “Working Together” – is a moderated discussion with Mr. Carney.
Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief Linda Debassige said planning for the meeting has felt disorganized and last minute, including seeing the draft agenda less than a week ahead of time. The length of the working sessions does not leave a lot of time to hear from leadership, she said.
She said she expects that the ask for questions in advance is meant to streamline the day-long conversation. However, that approach, as with any engagement with the federal government, begs the question of if consultation will be actually meaningful, she said.
The meetings, which were announced by Mr. Carney after Bill C-5 passed the House of Commons, are specifically with “rights holders.”
Rights holders are Indigenous peoples – First Nations, Inuit and Metis – who fall under Section 35 of Canada’s constitution, says Riley Yesno, a distinguished fellow at the Yellowhead Institute.
That section of the Constitution recognizes and affirms their existing Aboriginal and treaty rights, and its where the duty to consult stems from. Indigenous peoples and parts of Canada also have Aboriginal title.
Prime ministers and politicians continue to use different terms – rights holder, proper title holder or recognition of rights– to describe how the federal government will approach working with Indigenous peoples, but fail to do the necessary work to transform the relationship, said Jody Wilson-Raybould, a former Trudeau cabinet minister who resigned in the wake of the SNC-Lavalin controversy in February 2019. She is opposed to Bill C-5.
“So when they speak in these terms, it’s merely performative or looks to curry favour with the public that they’re doing the right thing, while doing the same thing that every government has done before them,” she said.
Mr. Carney using the term “rights holders” does suggest that he has been well-briefed about who he needs to speak to, said Ms. Yesno. While it has been easier for previous prime ministers to build up relationships with large organizing bodies, such as the Assembly of First Nations, those organizations are not necessarily rights holders in and of themselves, she said.
“They might represent some rights-holding First Nations, but they are ultimately” non-governmental and political advocacy bodies, she said.
The Assembly of First Nations is not involved in organizing the July 17 meeting. Niigaan Sinclair, a professor of Indigenous studies at the University of Manitoba, said that the federal government negotiating with the AFN about rights would have been a problem for the chiefs.
“They would have not recognized the legitimacy of anything negotiated on behalf of AFN because” it is not a rights holder, he said.
On Thursday, the AFN held a virtual forum to discuss Bill C-5 and next week’s summit, where a moderator was clear it was not government consultation.
After the forum, Ms. Woodhouse Nepinak said in an interview that chiefs are “united in expressing strong concerns about how this bill was pushed through parliament with no input from rights holders.”