Parks Canada will share stewardship with Indigenous nations

National Observer

5 days ago

In a move that could revolutionize how national parks are managed, Parks Canada is partnering with Indigenous people to share authority over decisions in dozens of locations.
Under its 2025‑26 Departmental Plan, the agency aims to have at least 27 natural heritage places and 15 cultural heritage sites managed in partnership with First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities by March 2026.
The department says it is well on its way to meeting its goal, building on the 23 national parks and nine historic sites where Indigenous peoples were already part of formal co‑management at the end of the last fiscal year.
'[It's] built upon decades of working with Indigenous partners … thinking about values like trust and respect and reciprocity … how we can better build relationships, have better trust and do a better job at respecting Indigenous ways of knowing and being in all that Parks Canada does,' said Nathan Cardinal, who is Métis and director of Indigenous policy at Parks Canada.
Cardinal said the change builds on decades of co‑management agreements, such as long‑running consensus‑based governance with the Haida Nation in BC's Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and National Marine Conservation Area.
But until recently, those arrangements were inconsistent and limited in scope.
This ambitious target is supported by a series of policy and relationship shifts, foremost among them the Indigenous Stewardship Policy enacted in October 2024 in collaboration with the Indigenous Stewardship Circle, a group composed of Indigenous leaders. The policy sets a framework for respectful collaboration grounded in Indigenous knowledge, laws, governance and stewardship practices.
"These lands are not just habitats for species-at-risk, they are home to our stories, our medicines and our ancestors,' said Nikki van Oirschot, chief of Caldwell First Nation.
In northern Labrador, the Nunatsiavut Government, Makivvik and Parks Canada are working together on a new Inuit Protected Area and national marine conservation area next to Torngat Mountains National Park. The project could protect up to 17,000 square kilometres of coastal and marine waters.
The goal, said Nunatsiavut Deputy Minister Jim Goudie, is nothing less than equal decision‑making power.
Goudie said their work with Parks Canada on a proposed marine protected area is aimed at 'true co‑governance, where our president has the same decision‑making authority as the federal minister.'
Nikki van Oirschot, chief of Caldwell First Nation, said that for Ojibway National Urban Park to be truly co‑governed, it must include firm commitments for long‑term ecological monitoring, guaranteed funding for the Nation's Land Guardian program and decision‑making rules that cannot be bypassed or overturned by a federal minister.
Without those safeguards, 'co‑governance commitments could remain aspirational rather than actionable,' she warned.
The urban park is envisioned as a place of learning, where young people gain land‑based skills and conservation knowledge from elders and visitors see that Indigenous presence is alive and ongoing, Oirschot said.
While Parks Canada works to meet the national target of conserving 30 per cent of land and waters by 2030, the focus is on how those targets are met.
'It's really important that we continue to push towards 2030 but it's also really important that we do this work in a way that upholds our values when it comes to reconciliation and decolonization of the Protected Area establishment,' Cardinal said.
Oirschot said success will be measured by the lasting relationships it builds — between people and the land, and between nations and the Crown.
'The ONUP landscape includes some of the last remaining tallgrass prairie and black oak savannah in Canada — ecosystems that are ecologically rare and culturally significant. These lands are not just habitats for species-at-risk, they are home to our stories, our medicines and our ancestors,' Oirschot said.
Goudie called the current relationship 'excellent' compared to the past and said Parks Canada staff is 'actively trying to make sure reconciliation is not a buzzword, but actually being put into practice.'
The agency's approach is a marked improvement from past decades, when the federal government often unilaterally chose park locations, displacing Indigenous people and cutting them off from their lands.
'There simply cannot be a new park or protected area in Canada that is not co‑managed by Indigenous peoples. I don't think there ever will be again,' said Chris Rider, national conservation director with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.
Still, there are hurdles. Rider pointed to lengthy delays in securing federal funding once agreements are made. In one case, he said, it took two years from the public commitment to a new park before the money was announced.
'That's two years a community is waiting for certainty, and it undermines confidence,' he said.
Much of the recent progress has been supported by the federal Enhanced Nature Legacy Fund, which is set to expire in April 2026. Without renewed financing, Rider warned, 'it's going to be incredibly difficult for Parks Canada to continue to deliver.'
Parks Canada has also used federal funding to expand Indigenous Guardian programs — local stewardship jobs that put 'moccasins and mukluks on the ground' — but Cardinal said they are continuing to work to make funding more accessible and better aligned with the scope of the work.
'We're still in that negotiation. Things just started … so maybe two years down the road, I won't be so happy, but at this point, I have to be cautiously optimistic that we'll see the dollars that hopefully we negotiate,' Goudie said.