Fast-track legislation condemned by B.C. Indigenous leaders
VICTORIA — Premier David Eby was to meet with Indigenous leaders on Wednesday night after they complained he'd failed to properly consult them about the government's new Infrastructure Projects Act.
'I've got some work to do tonight with the leadership council,' Eby conceded to reporters at a midday news conference in Victoria. 'There's clearly some misunderstandings about this legislation and I hope to be able to clear them up.'
The Infrastructure Projects Act, Bill 15, gives the NDP cabinet broad powers to override existing regulations and authorities and expedite approval of major projects, public and private.
The New Democrats provided the finished text with Indigenous leaders before introducing the bill last Thursday.
However, the government did not consult First Nations during the drafting process, as required by the NDP government's own policies regarding the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The government's failure to properly consult Indigenous leaders in advance brought immediate protests.
One of the first to speak out was Jody Wilson-Raybould, the former federal justice minister and MP from B.C.
'Having read Bill 15, which purports to fast-track projects, (here's) my prediction: more lawsuits, more uncertainty, and poorer economic and environmental outcomes,' she wrote on her X social media account the day after the legislation was introduced.
The post came a week after Wilson-Raybould wrote an opinion piece in The Vancouver Sun with Christine Boyle, the NDP minister of Indigenous relations and reconciliation.
The two emphasized the importance of respecting Indigenous sovereignty in making policies and laws regarding land and resources in B.C.
Now Wilson-Raybould was saying, in effect, that Boyle's own NDP government had failed to respect Indigenous leaders in crafting a major piece of legislation regarding public and private infrastructure.
This week came a broad-based blast at the NDP's handling of Bill 15 from the Indigenous leaders who make up the First Nations Leadership Council.
'Bill 15 has the potential to greatly impact First Nations' inherent and Aboriginal rights, title, and jurisdiction both in its application and its intended outcomes,' read the news release. 'It could result in major extractive projects being fast-tracked, contrary to the province's constitutional, legislative, and environmental obligations and commitments.'
The council flagged the government's apparent disregard for the Declaration Act, brought in to implement the principles of the UN Declaration.
It committed the New Democrats to consult Indigenous leaders on major legislation in advance, during the drafting process, not afterward as happened with Bill 15.
'The province is ramming through Bill 15 without any input from First Nations, who stand to be adversely impacted,' said Terry Teegee, B.C. regional chief for the Assembly of First Nations.
'This law may breach constitutional consultation requirements and is not consistent with the UN Declaration.'
'Reconciliation and economic growth are not incompatible; they go hand in hand,' added Robert Phillips from the First Nations Summit. 'If the province chooses to neglect the former in a misguided attempt to advance the latter, it will quickly find itself mired in legal proceedings that benefit absolutely no one.'
Eby insisted it was not the NDP's intention to trample Indigenous rights. The government is still bound by the Constitution and its own laws to consult First Nations and accommodate their interests on projects. It fully intends to do so.
But all that will be happening after the fact, not before. The Ministry of Infrastructure acknowledged the delay in a statement accompanying the release of Bill 15 last week.
'The ministry has begun engagement with First Nations on this legislation through notifications and information sessions, and those conversations will continue,' it said. 'Deeper consultation with First Nations is planned to help inform development of regulations.'
Infrastructure Minister Bowinn Ma admitted that the New Democrats skipped over the preliminary consultations because their political agenda called for passage in the spring session of the legislature.
'I acknowledge Bill 15 was expedited legislation,' Ma told Rob Shaw of the Orca online news service. 'There was a shorter process to consultation than we would have liked to have.'
Like the premier, she insisted that the government remains committed to the UNDRIP principles, never mind that those weren't respected in the drafting process.
'The bill didn't go through the process that we've agreed to go through in terms of co-drafting with them,' Eby conceded. 'That's something I can acknowledge with them and continue to do the work.'
Indigenous leaders who've called on the New Democrats to pause the bill for proper consultations should not get their hopes up in light of a stunt the government pulled on Tuesday night.
The New Democrats called a snap vote on a motion that allows them to cut off debate and enact Bill 15 and two other pieces of legislation on May 28, one day before the scheduled adjournment of the spring session.
The motion passed by a vote of 46 to 44 with one Conservative and one Independent MLA absent.
It suggests the New Democrats have every intention of using their legislative majority to ramrod passage of Bill 15 this month, never mind how they disregarded Indigenous nations during the drafting process.
vpalmer@postmedia.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
To Protect Amazon from Drug Traffickers, Title Indigenous Lands, Report Says
Drug traffickers are violently seizing Indigenous lands in the Peruvian Amazon to clear rainforest and grow coca. To combat the drug trade, a new report calls for titling Indigenous territories along major trafficking routes. Since 2020, 27 Indigenous leaders in Peru have been assassinated, it is believed, for defending their land, including more than a dozen who were murdered in connection to drug trafficking, according to a new report published by Amazon Watch. 'We, the Indigenous defenders, face threats from drug traffickers when we speak out,' said Marcelo Odicio, an Indigenous Kakataibo leader. 'We are calling for real change in how this crisis is addressed.' Drug traffickers are able to seize land through organized invasions and cement their holdings with fraudulent contracts. More than 270 Indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon are at risk of being attacked and uprooted by drug traffickers, the report said. To protect native lands and stem the loss of forest, it called for titling Indigenous territories. Until recently, the U.S. Agency for International Development had been supporting Indigenous groups in Peru in combating deforestation related to the production of cocaine. But the recent dismantling of the agency, under President Donald Trump, has threatened to reinvigorate the drug trade, the Associated Press reports. U.S. Aid Cuts Are Hitting Global Conservation Projects Hard
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Oklahoma lawmakers didn't think we deserved to know their plans as session ended, and they did a lot
Representatives Josh West, R-Grove, left, Steve Bashore, R-Miami, and John Pfeiffer, R-Orlando, watch the vote returns on a veto override vote during the House session on May 29. (Photo by Janelle Stecklein/Oklahoma Voice) Oklahoma's lawmakers are supposed to be accountable to the people who elected them, but our legislators conveniently forgot that last month in their frenetic scramble to reach the finish line. Lawmakers spent the final night of the annual legislative session chugging cups of coffee and scarfing down pizza as they cast dozens upon dozens of consequential votes while most of their constituents slept. When Oklahomans awoke the morning of May 30, they suddenly found themselves with nearly four dozen new laws ramrodded through the Legislature in the dead of night. Meanwhile, the head of a state agency woke up unemployed after legislators suddenly decided to fire her just before the stroke of midnight. It's not necessarily problematic that lawmakers cast votes at night: That happens many years because they procrastinate or are otherwise disorganized. What was extremely concerning this time was that they entered — and exited — the penultimate day without a full public agenda posted. If their sparse public agenda was to be believed, the state House of Representatives and Senate had no plans to take up any veto overrides or even the state's mental health commissioner. The reality was starkly different. It turns out our elected officials, who we pay to operate in the public, strode into session, secretly planning to override Gov. Kevin Sittt's vetoes on a wide range of topics ranging from mammogram screenings to food truck fire safety to investigations of missing and murdered Indigenous women. But they apparently didn't think the public was entitled to know those plans. It wasn't until they actually started voting that the public got an inkling that something was afoot. How is that good governing? Do our lawmakers think they know so much better than their constituents that they don't believe the people they represent should be able to weigh in on significant issues? Or is it just that they think the only voices that matter are the lobbyists gathered around the chamber television screens watching the shenanigans play out in real time? Is it any wonder that Stitt posted a video on social media frustrated with all the last-minute maneuvering and telling voters to watch closely? Because make no mistake, these were consequential votes. A successful override of the governor's veto meant these measures became law. And there were some great veto overrides like increasing women's access to mammogram screenings and focusing resources to help tackle the state's Missing Murdered and Indigenous People crisis. But there were some headscratchers. One such veto override saw lawmakers waste nearly five hours deadlocked on a strange bill that changed the leadership requirements to become the Oklahoma National Guard's top leader. Stitt said later it creates a new pension system, will cost taxpayers' a lot of money and that lawmakers didn't know what they were voting on. I'm still not 100% certain what exactly the bill does, but critics of the measure grumbled under their breath that the changes would benefit a seated lawmaker, and that the House leaders wouldn't allow any more critical veto overrides — like mammogram screenings — to move forward until that one happened. The Legislature decided Allie Friesen, the mental health commissioner, needed to go with all the chaos surrounding her agency's budgetary disarray, cut and canceled contracts and the need for tens of millions of dollars just to make payroll. Lawmakers were so disillusioned with her leadership in the final days that they essentially stripped her of her power to directly implement a landmark mental health settlement that involves providing competency restoration services for indigent defendants. Stitt, who opposed the firing, said Friesen disturbed 'the status quo and questioned long held practices at the agency.' He also criticized Sen. Paul Rosino, R-Oklahoma City, and Rep. Josh West, R-Grove, who ran the measure, questioning what they stand to gain, what they were trying to keep covered up, if they have conflicts of interest, and if Rosino was 'trying to help his wife avoid responsibility for her role in the finance department there.' Rosino admitted during questioning on the Senate floor that his wife works as a part-time employee at the agency. She was apparently working there even while her husband was helping lead investigatory hearings into the agency's operations and sought Friesen's firing. Stitt later apologized for bringing Rosino's wife into the conversation. We've entrusted our lawmakers with an enormous amount of power. They're pretty much the only governmental entity in the entire state that is not subject to the Open Meeting and Open Records Act. They have internal rules that govern their behavior, but it's not uncommon to watch them waive those at a moment's notice when they deem it convenient. That means legislators basically do whatever they want, when they want and how they want. The public can't look at their correspondence to determine what's happening behind the scenes that could influence their decision-making. Even the Governor's Office has to comply with both laws. Given lawmakers' secretive behavior, I think it begs the question, do they continue to deserve this level of trust? Lawmakers, how would you answer this question? SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
From flames to Falls: Canada's Indigenous wildfire evacuees take refuge in Niagara
NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario (Reuters) -As wildfires engulfed Manitoba's remote north in late May, Joseph Garry, 63, fled the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation indigenous reserve, also known as Pukatawagan, on a helicopter. With other evacuees, he took three separate government flights before boarding a bus to find shelter in Niagara Falls, Canada's most popular tourist destination, some 2,000 kilometers from home. Scores of wildfires have swept across Canada since the start of May, forcing more than 30,000 people to evacuate in three provinces, spreading smoke into the United States, and disrupting crude oil and mining production. Indigenous communities have been hit especially hard. Although First Nations people make up only around 5% of Canada's population, they are among the most affected by this year's wildfires. Manitoba is struggling with its largest-ever fire evacuation effort. Early evacuees took shelter in community and sport centers in Winnipeg, but the province's cities are running out of space, forcing officials to turn to other locations such as Ontario's Niagara Falls, which has ample hotels. Around 2,000 evacuees from Manitoba and 500 from Northern Ontario are staying in four hotels in Niagara Falls, with more possibly arriving in coming days, according to Jo Zambito, chief of the Niagara Falls Fire Department. While the city is proud to help fellow Canadians during a crisis, Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati urged the federal and provincial governments to consider alternative accommodations as peak tourism season approaches. Indigenous leaders in Manitoba have criticized both federal and provincial governments for inadequate communication and delays in delivering requested resources during the wildfire crisis, while Pukatawagan residents recounted a chaotic and frightening evacuation. Videos shared by residents with Reuters showed military and civilian helicopters buzzing back and forth over the remote community of roughly 3,000 people, landing on the school field as thick wildfire smoke enveloped the area and flames inched nearer, and dozens of people huddled inside a Chinook military helicopter. At one point, a pilot warned Garry and 100 others waiting to board that the fire was only half a kilometer away and being pushed closer by the wind. 'To tell you the truth, it's... It's scary. Not for myself, but for everybody else. Especially children,' Garry said, in tears while speaking at the hotel the federal government is housing him in. Garry, a manager at the local airfield, left all his belongings behind except for a few sets of clothing and was briefly separated from two of his daughters and their children. His 50-person extended family was later reunited in Niagara Falls. Vanessa Hart, 43, a stay-at-home mother from Pukatawagan who was evacuated to Niagara Falls, said that despite repeated pleas from their chief and council, help did not arrive for three to four days. She believes a faster evacuation could have prevented significant distress. "They didn't come and help right away," Hart said. Indigenous Services Canada, which managed the evacuation, said emergency response is a shared responsibility and first response is generally up to local authorities. "The Government of Canada is working alongside First Nation partners, as well as provincial and territorial counterparts, and continues to closely monitor the rapidly evolving wildfire situation across the country," the agency said in a statement. Manitoba's government said in an email that smoky conditions near Pukatawagan early in the emergency response prevented water bombers from providing vital air support. "They (planes) were grounded for all fires in the air support has been used extensively in the north whenever and wherever possible," it added. A date to return home for the evacuees in Niagara Falls is uncertain and depends on when plane and rail access are restored - possibly in one to two months. Wildfire response in First Nations communities has been "pretty chaotic," said Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak. She called for more investment in basic infrastructure such as fire hydrants and fire trucks. "We need more coordination. And we've been asking for it for decades," she said. (Additional reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Nia Williams)
