Carney sidesteps a national dispute to claim small win in Métis meeting

National Observer

2 days ago

Prime Minister Mark Carney just dodged a bullet in his ongoing efforts to secure Indigenous support for Bill C-5.
This follows Thursday's meeting between the prime minister and Métis leaders from across Canada. The Métis Major Projects Summit, held in Ottawa, was the third of three summits Carney had promised the three Indigenous groups in Canada — First Nations, Inuit, and Métis — following widespread criticism over the failure to consult Indigenous leaders while Bill C-5 was being crafted.
But it was nearly a disaster: the day before Métis leaders converged on Ottawa, one of their most powerful members — David Chartrand, president of the Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF) — denounced the prime minister's decision to invite both the Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO) and the Métis National Council (MNC) to the summit; as a result of their presence, Chartrand said that the Manitoba Métis would boycott the meeting entirely.
'Canada cannot ask us as the National Government of the Red River Métis to sit in a room with a non-rightsholder like the MNC, a body that has no legitimate path forward under its own bylaws, having lost all but two of its members — one of which is MNO,' Chartrand said on Wednesday.
Chartrand was referencing a complex dispute that goes back several years, and illustrates the minefield of diplomacy Carney must navigate as he courts Indigenous leaders from across the country. It isn't just the federal government that some of those leaders distrust; many have longstanding conflicts with other groups and governments, making it virtually impossible for the federal government to gain unanimous support.
The rift between the Métis organizations of Manitoba and Ontario marked a painful illustration of this dynamic. Few Indigenous leaders have been as vocally supportive of Bill C-5 as Chartrand, making him a key ally for the prime minister; losing that support would have been a serious blow.
'To the prime minister: the door is open,' Chartrand told reporters on Wednesday. 'If you want to come and sit down with my cabinet in a government-to-government relationship, we will meet. But if you want to insult us, then we'll see each other in a different political realm in the future.'
Prime Minister Mark Carney just dodged a bullet in his ongoing efforts to secure Indigenous support for Bill C-5. This follows Thursday's meeting between the prime minister and Métis leaders from across Canada.
Defusing an 'awkward predicament'
Carney was able to defuse the situation, starting with a phone call Wednesday night.
'He called me, and we had a good chat,' Chartrand told Canada's National Observer, expressing sympathy for the 'very awkward predicament' that Carney was in.
'I don't blame him personally,' Chartrand said. During their phone call, the prime minister promised Chartrand a bilateral meeting in the near future to discuss how Bill C-5 would be implemented in accordance with Indigenous rights. 'We talked about the future, where we will be working to try to combat the issue that we face, and it's a serious issue … Trump, the regime of the 51 st state, that's serious stuff. The economic war is a serious matter.'
The prime minister also sent the ministers of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Indigenous Services — Rebecca Alty and Mandy Gull-Masty — to meet with Chartrand and the Manitoba Métis Nation cabinet on Wednesday evening. That, too, was 'a very good discussion,' Chartrand said, though it didn't touch on C-5 specifically. Instead, the ministers promised that the MMF's long-awaited treaty and land claims would be prioritized by Parliament when it resumes in the fall, something Chartrand regards as a vital prerequisite to engaging on any major projects under C-5.
'That would give us the tools to become a real partner on these national projects,' Chartrand said of securing his nation's treaty and land claim, which would deliver a financial windfall 'in the billions' to the MMF; that, in turn, will enable the Manitoba Métis to finance their own nation-building projects.
'For example,' he said, 'we're finishing off the tendering for 600 megawatts of wind power in Manitoba — it's going to cost $450 to $500 million to put up those towers.'
Inside the Summit
While Chartrand didn't change his decision to boycott the Ottawa summit, several other Métis leaders did attend, including the president of the Métis Nation of Ontario, Margaret Froh.
'It was a very positive day,' Froh told Canada's National Observer. 'A very full day of good, positive, respectful conversation.'
Asked what Canadians should make of the dispute between her nation and the Manitoba Métis, Froh said, 'I think Canadians need to know more about our history as Metis people. I'll say very simply, Ontario is home of the only Supreme Court of Canada decision that actually has recognized the Métis community with rights under Section 35 of the Constitution. … And the position that the Manitoba Métis Federation has been putting forward, this narrative that Red River Métis are the only Métis and that MMF is the only Métis government, completely defies the facts of history and common sense.'
Rather than engage with that dispute, Froh said, 'We are looking forward to continuing our dialogue with the prime minister, with cabinet, with other Metis governments that will come to the table.'
Froh's comments were echoed by Andrea Sandmaier, president of the Otipemisiwak Métis Government (formerly the Métis Nation of Alberta), who also attended Thursday's summit.
'There were a lot of like-minded people around that table today that want to move our Métis governments forward, and move Canada forward,' Sandmaier told reporters in a press conference after the meeting. 'So it was a great day, it was really good.'
As with the two previous summits Carney held with First Nations and Inuit leaders, this one didn't delve into any specific major projects that either Carney or Métis leaders had in mind. Instead, Froh said, Métis leaders reiterated their concerns over proper consultation and made clear that 'we do support development, but never at the expense of Section 35 rights-holders.'
Carney has promised that the major projects office will be established by Labour Day, along with an Indigenous advisory council whose composition and purpose was also a subject of discussion on Thursday, albeit without any concrete details.
Asked if she supports Bill C-5 following the summit, Froh said, 'I actually do feel very hopeful coming out of today's conversation. I thought it was very respectful, very forward-looking, and we were really focused on rolling up our sleeves and doing the hard work together in order to make a better world for our communities and for the broader country.'
By the end of Thursday, then, Carney managed to keep the support of those Métis leaders who attended his summit, along with that of the boycotting Manitoba Métis Nation.
The real work will begin in the fall, once specific projects start to come into view. But for now, the prime minister can fairly claim to have snatched a small victory from the jaws of defeat.