Obed says Inuit organizations must be consulted on major projects bill
Indigenous leaders across Canada concerned Bill C-5 being passed without proper consultation
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Natan Obed speaks with reporters earlier this year in Iqaluit. He and other national Indigenous leaders are calling for more consultations before Bill C-5 is approved. (File photo by Daron Letts)
Indigenous leaders across the country, including the head of Canada’s national Inuit organization, are raising concerns over a bill being fast-tracked through Parliament which they say may infringe on treaty rights and obligations.
Bill C-5, known as the Building Canada Act, was designed to streamline approval and development processes for projects deemed to be in the national interest, such as ports, mines and pipelines, and remove inter-provincial trade barriers. If passed, it would allow the federal cabinet to override various statutes to move those approvals forward.
The federal government received support June 16 from the opposition Conservatives to expedite the bill in a 305-30 vote, with the Bloc Québécois, NDP and Green Party voting against. Bill C-5 was passed in the House of Commons on Friday and now goes to the Senate for first reading.
The Senate is expected to begin discussing Bill C-5 on Monday.
“It has been Canada’s weakness that it pats itself on the back for being a great champion of Indigenous Peoples and an upholder of the rule of law and the respect for Indigenous People’s rights, while at the same time acting very differently through its legislation and through its practice,” said Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, speaking to the Senate on June 16.
Obed, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, and Manitoba Métis Federation president David Chartrand met with senators to voice their concerns and ask the Senate to take more time to consider the bill.
Obed said the Senate should also listen to regional leaders’ thoughts on the bill.
“We should invite each Inuit treaty organization and weigh submissions for amendments from Inuit treaty organizations directly,” he said.
Jeremy Tunraluk, president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the territory’s Inuit rights-holding organization, agreed with Obed.
“We are ready and willing to work with the federal government to determine how we can jointly reach economic development and prosperity objectives across Nunavut,” he said.
That said, Tunraluk indicated he has faith in existing regulations.
“It is our understanding that the proposed act will not adversely affect existing treaties,” Tunraluk said. “The Nunavut Impact Review Board has also publicly stated that they do not foresee any changes, given that the Nunavut Agreement outlines a robust regulatory regime.
“Having said that, Inuit organizations stand with other Indigenous groups in Canada in expecting that the Crown will fully respect aboriginal treaties and rights.”
Parliamentarians have also criticized the speed with which the bill made its way through the House of Commons.
Interim NDP Leader Don Davies said he agrees inter-provincial trade barriers should be removed and projects in the national interest should be built.
“However, this is not the way to do it,” he told reporters. “The Liberals and Conservatives have joined together to ram through Bill C-5 with shockingly little public input or debate.
“It will gut environmental protections, it will undermine labour protections, and it will also hurt or damage Indigenous rights in this country.”
These groups have no interest in a greater national good. Everything for them is about extracting entitlements and benefits for themselves alone, and that will never change. They should consider separation from Canada.
Wow, that is a fair chunk of Canada that you are suggesting. To divide Canada has been the dream of Alberta and Quebec. Now you are suggesting Indigenous lands also separate?
Nunavut alone would take away a quarter of the countries land mass. Canada has always been able to negotiate with all parties and remain a strong country.
Your proposition will not work to divy up the country.
They are a drag on Canada and we would be better off without them
Atii, stand with Alberta and partner up with Quebec to separate from Canada 🇨🇦 *joke
Last I checked I voted for the Government of Nunavut, not ITK or NTI. NTI may hold private land but it does so ultimately, like all landowners, under the authority of government, they do not own private lands under their own jurisdiction. Nunavut and Nunavik and Inuvialuit and Nunasiavut are not little countries. For this reason they pay property taxes and are regulated environmentally etc.
Since when did the largest, most comprehensive, modern, settled land claim in Canada become a Treaty?
The day it was ratified?
I disagree with obed.
The next headline is going to be ‘Know-Nothing Know-It-All Adds Nothing’
If only these Inuit organizations consulted with Inuit.
They do sometimes. Then they remember why they left the North and don’t want to come back.
To understand the differences between Indiginous and others, it helps to know a bit of history.
Perhaps that’s why history is not really taught in Nunavut.
The United States was started by 13 men, each of whom claimed that he, rather than the King of England, had a direct line to God. They each left England with people who were willing to do whatever their leader told them to do. Those settlers came “to live free from royal oppression”. But they had no concerns about killing the Indiginous people whose land they wanted.
Canada was started by French and then British aristocrats who were not oldest-sons, and hence stood to inherit nothing from their fathers. They came to North America to get valuables, such as fish, furs, timber, and minerals. They each had a plan to take their plunder back to where they came from. Their intend was to buy the land-holding of some impoverished oldest-son. A few succeeded.
After the American Revolutionary War, about 1/3 of the colonists decided that “royal oppression” and a chance to go to England with considerable wealth was better than the alternative. Most of those moved to what is now Ontario.
This has led to what we have today. The USA is becoming a religious empire. Canada is being looted of its raw materials, which are being sent elsewhere for value-added processing. Canada continues to import people willing to work hard in hope of a small share of the loot.
Indiginous organizations will be consulted in Canada, but only to the extent that they support the initiatives of those in control. In the US they are allowed to run casinos.
Neither Canada nor the USA intends to give back the land, nor its wealth, to the Indiginous people who had possession before the arrival of the Europeans.
There are 2 potential nation building projects that have been identified in Nunavut by our Premier; the Qikiqtarjuaq Deep Sea Port, and the Grays Bay Road and Port.
The Port is being proposed by Qiqiqtaaluk Corporation, which is a company owned by the Inuit of Baffin region.
The Road and Port is being proposed by West Kitikmeot Gold, an offshoot of the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, which represents the Inuit of the Kitikmeot.
When Natan Obed says that Inuit organizations need to be consulted on the Building Canada Act, it seems like he is a bit behind the times.
Inuit are active participants in nation building in Nunavut. They are already working hand in glove with GN and Canada to try to get these types of things done.
When an indigenous group says they need to be consulted, this comes from a position of powerlessness and lack of agency. This is when an indigenous group is either unable and unwilling to do what it is necessary to get something new done themselves that will effect their people or their lands.
When it gets to the point that all there is left to do is to consult with indigenous people about what has already been thought up and planned, indigenous people are on their back foot, reacting to what others are doing.
Inuit are clearly not in this position in Nunavut.
Instead of saying Inuit need to be consulted, perhaps ITK could align itself better with reality and support the Building Canada Act. It seems the best thing for Inuit is to get this law in in place yesterday, so Inuit can get the stuff they want done and have been calling for years.
Duuuhhhhh, why do we have the GN,NTI, NPC, NIRB,water board, a MP, and many MLAs, I thought Nathan would go away after he changed the Edmonton Eskimos name, but sure hanging onto the gravy train.
He needs to catch up like our government up here in the north