VANCOUVER, Canada – Prime Minister Mark Carney’s efforts to unite Canadians around protecting Canada’s economy from the United States are hitting a roadblock as he approaches his first year in office.
Indigenous peoples across Canada are increasingly divided over Mr. Carney’s aggressive push to expand resource extraction and projects on their ancestral lands.
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Some experts question how the government can pursue policies while respecting the rights of indigenous peoples enshrined in the constitution.
March 14th marks one year since former Bank of Canada Governor Carney was sworn into office.
After last year’s election, his centrist Liberal Party formed a minority government with the highest percentage of votes in 40 years.
Key to Mr. Carney’s victory was his pledge to “stand decisively” against the U.S. trade threat and expand Canada’s economic sovereignty, an aggressive approach the prime minister calls “elbows up.”
“In the face of changes in global trade…we will build bigger and faster to build a stronger, more sustainable and more independent economy,” Carney said in a March 6 statement.
As part of this push, the Office of Major Projects was created to expedite economic development approvals, with the first 10 megaprojects to be fast-tracked.
These include two large liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants and open-pit mines in British Columbia, a nuclear power plant in Ontario, a marine terminal in Quebec, and a wind farm in Atlantic Canada.
The government estimates these developments are worth C$116 billion ($85 billion).
“Our rights are being sidelined.”
Mr. Carney’s approach to the U.S. trade war enjoys support from Canadians, according to recent polls.
A poll of 1,500 people conducted by Abacus Data on March 3 found that 50 per cent said Mr Carney was protecting Canada’s core interests in negotiations with President Trump, while 36 per cent had an unfavorable opinion.
“Every time Canada is threatened, the protectionist nature of the nation comes back,” said Shadi Hafez, assistant professor of political science at Toronto Metropolitan University.
“Canada’s security becomes a priority.”
Hafez, a researcher at the Yellowhead Institute, is a member of the Kitigan-Jibi Anishinaabeg First Nation in Quebec.
He said there was growing concern in local communities and elsewhere about Mr Carney’s efforts to accelerate mega-projects nationwide.
“To do that, Canada needs land and resources, and Canada is taking those lands and resources away from us,” Hafez said.
The backlash quickly spread after Mr. Carney signed a late November deal with Canada’s oil giant Alberta, pledging to build a controversial oil pipeline to the West Coast.
Carney’s culture minister promptly resigned, accusing the country of “no consultation” with Indigenous peoples and “serious environmental impacts”.
And the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), which represents more than 600 First Nations chiefs, unanimously passed an emergency resolution opposing the new pipeline.
“Indigenous peoples, we stand with Canada against Trump’s illegal tariffs, but not at the cost of our rights,” AFN national director Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said in an interview with Al Jazeera. “If you want to do something quickly, you better make sure Indigenous people are included from the beginning.
“To try to sideline or displace Indigenous people when there is an agreement between the provinces and the federal government is to remember that Indigenous people are here and they deserve to be respected in their homeland.”
The rights of Indigenous peoples in Canada are enshrined in the Canadian Constitution.
However, Hafez often said that in the name of national prosperity, “indigenous communities must suffer.”
“Whenever there is some kind of emergency, our rights are sidelined.”
However, resistance to pursuing large-scale projects is not universal.
The Indigenous Natural Gas Alliance praised Carney’s “much more aggressive” approach to energy resource development than his predecessor.
But the group’s chief executive Karen Augen acknowledged there was a “very challenging environment” on these issues.
“Indigenous communities continue to face significant socio-economic barriers,” said the former chief of Wet’suwet’en First Nation. “LNG and natural gas development is not just an opportunity, it is a national obligation.
“Billions of dollars in procurement profits and revenues flow to Indigenous peoples.”
Call for cooperation “on all major projects”
Cheryl Lightfoot, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, said the trade war with the United States has energized and united many Canadians, but there has been little recognition of its impact on Indigenous communities.
Ms. Lightfoot is Vice-Chair of the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
“According to many views, these projects are being advanced without full consultation and transparency,” she told Al Jazeera.
“Economic or geopolitical pressures appear to be used to justify circumventing indigenous rights and environmental protection measures.”
But Canada’s Major Projects Agency insists it “seeks input, hears concerns and ideas, and moves forward in partnership” with Indigenous communities, and “will not skip critical steps on any project, including consultation with Indigenous peoples,” an agency spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
“We will unlock Canada’s economic potential while respecting our environmental responsibilities and Indigenous rights.”
A significant number of projects on Kearney’s Fast Track list are concentrated in British Columbia (BC).
These include two liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals on the Pacific Coast (LNG Canada and Kushi Lysimus LNG), as well as the transmission lines that power the sector, and copper and gold mines.
British Columbia is unique in the country because historically most of its land was subject to treaties between the Crown and First Nations. Canada’s Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled in favor of Indigenous rights and title in the westernmost provinces.
All four of the province’s major projects have proven divisive among the region’s Indigenous peoples, even though some have the support of individual Indigenous governments.
One of these is the large-scale Kushi Lysimus LNG plant, in which the Nisga’a Nation is a direct partner.
The mega project, co-developed with Texas-based Western LNG, “will benefit all Canadians,” said Nisga’a President Eva Clayton.
In 2000, her country signed the first modern autonomy treaty in B.C.
“We are co-developing the Kushi-Lisims LNG project on land owned by our country under treaty terms,” she told a parliamentary committee on February 24.
“This project is expected to result in an investment of 30 billion (Canadian) dollars ($22 billion), create thousands of skilled careers and strengthen Canada’s leadership in low-emissions LNG.”
“Keep your elbows up” and encounter opposition
However, LNG is fiercely opposed by other nearby First Nations.
Tara Marsden is Willp Sustainability Director for the Gitanyou Hereditary Chiefs, the traditional leaders of the 900-member Gitanyou community.
“There is much more concern and evidence about the impact on our territory,” she said.
“The federal government has not undertaken any consultation on the fast-track list or any projects that actually impact our territory.”
Gitanyou opposes B.C.’s projects on the priority list, saying they would hurt his country’s interests.
She said Ottawa can’t ignore Indigenous opposition, even with support from other peoples like Nisga’a.
“They have a right to develop on their own territory,” Marsden said. “But if you have maybe 20 to 30 Indigenous people crossing over the territory, and maybe three, that’s not a complete consensus.
“They’re just trying to use this handful of countries to overwhelm other countries.”
If Canada truly wants to strengthen its sovereignty and economy, it must do so with Indigenous peoples, she said.
“This is what Indigenous peoples across the country have been saying ever since Mr Carney took the ‘elbows up’ approach,” Mr Marsden said.
“The government has really ignored that…and is actually now backstopping these huge projects with tax dollars.”
Free, prior and informed consent
Julian Karaghesian, an economics lecturer at McGill University, spent decades working at the Treasury Department and the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC.
He agreed that most Canadians support Mr. Carney’s attempts to revitalize the economy with “nation-building” projects.
“I think it’s a great idea,” he told Al Jazeera. “But we have committed to consultation with First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples.
“If we start to compromise on economic and social justice… there can be resentment. I think Indigenous leaders understand the situation we’re in and (Ottawa) can work with them.”
Lightfoot said that even if a project is approved by some indigenous peoples, the international law principle of “free, prior and informed consent” must still apply to other affected communities.
It’s “not just a procedural requirement” to rubber-stamp a project, she says.
“This is a substantive right rooted in the self-determination of indigenous peoples and their ability to make decisions about issues that affect their lands, communities and futures.”
And that risks delaying Mr. Carney’s hopes of moving the project forward quickly without First Nations consent, potentially leaving more polarized First Nations in court.
“Failure to include Indigenous knowledge and decision-making early in the process can undermine the legitimacy and equity of project approvals,” Lightfoot said.
AFN’s national director says Carney’s reputation among First Nations is “mixed.” One good thing, she noted, is his openness to meeting with Indigenous leaders who voice their concerns.
But Woodhouse-Nepinak said the relationship required caution, as many of the prime minister’s economic hopes depended on building “national interest” infrastructure on indigenous homelands.
“Mr. Carney is at a crossroads in his personal relationship with Indigenous peoples,” she said.
“And we understand that Indigenous rights are being threatened by governments in new ways.”
