Carney and Ford show two different paths for ‘unleashing' Canada's economy

Globe and Mail

28-05-2025

The governments of Ontario and Canada are both moving to fast-track development in the Ring of Fire region – but they are going about it in very different ways.
According to a May 23 letter from Canada's Privy Council Office obtained by The Globe and Mail, Canada has invited Mushkegowuk Council Grand Chief Leo Friday to Ottawa to 'consult and cooperate' on proposed legislation around projects identified to be in the national interest. It says new legislation is coming in early June that would facilitate regulations and development by creating a new Major Projects Office.
And in the letter, Canada promises to uphold the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the duty to consult: 'Now more than ever, the future of Canada's economy depends on a collaborative and coordinated approach among federal, provincial, territorial and Indigenous governments.'
Ottawa gave the Mushkegowuk Council, which represents First Nations communities along the western side of James Bay, seven days to meet or submit their thoughts. That is a compressed timeline, to be sure – but an effort to consult is better than nothing at all.
Changes to Bill 5 possible amid warnings of Indigenous protests, Ontario ministers say
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has offered nothing to First Nations concerning the passage of the ham-fisted Bill 5, the Protect Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act, which has ignored any input from 133 Ontario First Nations and would breach their Constitutional rights under Section 35.
That bill, which is being rammed through the committee process, proposes creating 'special economic zones' where mining companies can develop as they like while ignoring certain regulations or the requirement for Indigenous consultations – in other words, effectively creating lawless areas.
Bill 5 also guts the province's Endangered Species Act, a move that threatens the livelihoods of wolverines, caribou, migratory birds, bears, and whales, among others. The Toronto Zoo even warned the bill could undo decades of conservation efforts and drive species to extinction.
Ottawa's overtures indicate that Prime Minister Mark Carney's government at least knows what UNDRIP says and what consultation means. It goes without saying, meanwhile, that Mr. Ford is ignoring UNDRIP. Ontario, a signatory to Treaty 9, has decided to set the stage for confrontation.
'We have to keep fighting,' Grand Chief Friday told me after he passionately testified in the Ininimowin language on Monday at a Queen's Park committee hearing. 'This will not work for us. It is the same procedure as in 1905. They just come in and say they want signatures.'
What our ancestors understood in 1905 – when Treaty 9, which encompasses most of northern Ontario from the Manitoba border to James Bay, was signed – was that all the land and resources would be shared in an honourable way, not stolen.
'Our people were expecting so much wealth to come up for them and for good communities as well. They were told they were going to be given what they required for communities, and that never happened,' he told me. Instead, being boxed in on reserves and kept out of Canadian society happened. Indian Residential Schools happened. Genocide happened.
And now, U.S. President Donald Trump and the world are hungry for the resources underneath the territories we have walked on for thousands of years.
It feels as though Ottawa and Ontario are playing good cop, bad cop concerning critical mineral extraction. But what Canada and the provinces must understand is that First Nations will not be sidelined from building Canada; after all, this country was created from the treaties our ancestors signed.
First Nations leaders warn of confrontation over Ontario's 'special economic zones' in omnibus bill
On Monday, Indigenous leadership warned Ontario that Bill 5 must be scrapped, or they risk blocked or stalled projects, court interventions and further escalation of conflict.
'Ontario is trying to legislate us out of the conversation. That won't work,' Anishinabek Nation Grand Chief Linda DeBassige said.
'Withdraw Bill 5. There is no path forward with this legislation in its current form. Repeal it. Start again. Work with us … so that we can create something that will allow us to ensure not only that our economies survive, but that our environment, our lands, our waters, our animals, are here for our great-great-great-grandchildren, those who we will never meet but who we are responsible for."
As an Anishinaabe woman, she continued, 'it is not lost on me that it is our women who historically gave direction and sent out our warriors to what is necessary. I know they are listening today.'
She added: 'If this bill proceeds in its current form, we will be idle no more.'
Once again, Canadian governments are looking to Indigenous Peoples and their lands to save them. But they are coming to First Nations communities who have nothing left to lose – and everything to defend.