First Nations summit on Carney's major-projects bill 'only the beginning' of talks says AFN chief

OTTAWA — Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said this week’s First Nations summit with Prime Minister Mark Carney won’t be the last negotiation over his recently passed major-projects bill, but the beginning of a longer process. “This can’t be the end,” she said in a recent interview with National Post. “This should be only the beginning. It should have been the beginning a long time ago, right before this bill was even passed. Of course, it’s a tough issue, but we have to be at the table together.” Carney promised he would be holding a First Nations summit on July 17, followed by other summits with Inuit and Métis peoples later in the summer, after facing intense criticism from Indigenous chiefs on the way his government fast-tracked Bill C-5 in Parliament. The law gives the government of the day unprecedented powers to approve infrastructure and national resources projects deemed to be in the national interest. Woodhouse Nepinak said she pressed Carney “hard” to hold a meeting to hear directly from First Nations a few weeks ago, and said she is “glad” he answered that call. “I mean, is it perfect? No, it’s not going to be perfect. It’s not going to be the be all, end all.” “But at the same time, I think that it’s a start to figuring out our relationship together in this country,” added Woodhouse Nepinak. “Being at the table with First Nations, being at the table with the government of Canada, I think that this is a good start.” The summit will be taking place at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., in a hybrid in-person and videoconferencing format, said Privy Council Office (PCO) spokesperson Pierre Cuguen in an email. He said invitees include First Nations chiefs, modern-treaty and self-governing First Nations, First Nations regional organizations and tribal councils. Woodhouse Nepinak, as the AFN National Chief, and regional chiefs have also been invited to the summit by PCO. Cuguen said that planning for the two other summits with the Inuit and the Métis are underway and details will be made public as soon as they are confirmed. Deliah Bernard, a former Indigenous Affairs adviser to prime minister Justin Trudeau and now co-founder of the Indigenous-government relations consultant Roots Strategies, said there is “no one size fits all approach to what consent should and could look like.” “There are going to be regional disparities. There are going to be regional priorities. There are going to be circumstances that impact a community in one subsection of the country, that necessarily may not impact in the same way… different parts of the country.” “That is why you need to not take an approach where you’re stuffing potentially hundreds of people into a room and expect to come to a consensus,” she added. “That’s not the way to properly engage with people that you are saying are your partners in this work.” The government has raised eyebrows among this week’s summit attendees by asking them to submit their questions for Carney ahead of time. An invitation to the meeting shared with The Canadian Press shows chiefs have until July 16, the day before the summit, to submit questions they want Carney to answer. They will also have the option to vote on which questions will be posed by their peers. The invitation says that process will help highlight “shared priorities and bring the most pressing issues to the forefront.” AFN members held a meeting last week in preparation for the summit. Woodhouse Nepinak said “it’s clear that chiefs are united… in expressing strong concerns” about how C-5 was pushed through Parliament with little to no input from Indigenous groups. However, she added that AFN members expressed a “range of views” on the bill itself. “Some chiefs are very concerned about Bill C-5, while others want to proceed quickly with projects and resource revenue-sharing agreements. As the AFN National Chief, we’re trying to support every First Nations rights holder, whether they oppose or support this bill.” Woodhouse Nepinak said there is also a “growing consensus” that the government needs to look at closing the First Nations “infrastructure gap” on reserves as a project of national interest, and expects that element will be part of the discussion during this week’s summit. “The gaps are huge for First Nations people in this country,” she said. “The rest of Canada is always flourishing and worrying about a trade war or the bottom lines of their companies, when First Nations aren’t even part of the banking system. So, it’s a big issue.” While Bernard said there has been a “learning curve” for Carney when it comes to engaging with Indigenous peoples during C-5, she said he can always seek advice from his Indigenous caucus’s extensive experience in consulting with different communities. “We wouldn’t be a new government without some bumps in the road, but I think an acknowledgement and a gesture like holding these summits is a good way to be able to rebuild those relationships, and hopefully a bit of a relationship restart,” she said. “Let’s figure out a better way to do it moving forward.” — With files from The Canadian Press National Post calevesque@postmedia.com

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