NDP MP says Indigenous Advisory Council on major projects just smoke and mirrors

An NDP MP says the federal government’s Indigenous Advisory Council, which has been set up to assist the Major Projects Office in evaluating large infrastructure projects, will make little difference to communities. Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre) said as Parliament resumes, she’ll pressure the government to commit to consultations with each rights and title holder affected by a proposed project. “I think it’s just another action of the federal government. ”Gazan said. The House of Commons resumed sitting after the summer recess on Monday. The last session concluded with the government passing Bill C-5 – officially known as the One Canadian Economy Act. The legislation is broken into two parts, one of which, the Building Canada Act, gives the federal cabinet powers to push through infrastructure projects that are in the “national interest.” It also allows the government to sidestep certain pieces of legislation – mainly environmental laws – to get projects approved. On Sept. 10, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced an eleven-member Indigenous Advisory Council to help the head of the Major Projects Office evaluate projects. “[It’s a] smoke and mirrors action to appear as if their consulting when in fact they are failing to uphold the jurisdictional and rights to self-determination of Indigenous peoples,” Gazan told APTN News. “They are certainly violating rights contained within Section 35 and Section 35 (3) of the Constitution,” Gazan also said that the NDP, which was reduced to seven seats in the House of Commons after the April 28 federal election, will push the Liberals on the First Nations clean drinking water law. The law did not pass before Parliament was prorogued by former prime minister Justin Trudeau in January. According to Indigenous Services Canada (ISC), there is no date on when the bill will be reintroduced. But Minister Mandy Gull Masty said it is coming. “We did commit that we would be putting the water legislation back on the table, I hope that everybody in the House [of Commons] is going to support this process,” she said. “Water is a very critical issue in community. We want to be sure that people view this as a non-partisan agenda and that they’ll work with us to really push the solutions forward for them.” Gull Masty said the government would be working on other initiatives this during this sitting of Parliament including getting Bill S-2, which makes amendments to the Indian Act, passed through the Senate. But the prime minister is also asking departments to cut back. The bureaucracy is going to cut through attrition, according to the government. Gazan said cuts can’t come on the backs of Indigenous Peoples. “They’ve already made it clear that there’s going to be 15 per cent cut backs on for example Indigenous Services – ISC, Crown-Indigenous Relations when there’s no wiggle room, So, they are building a military and building an economy on the backs of people that have already had their human rights violated and people who are already left behind.” Gull Masty said her department is working to make ISC more efficient without reducing services. “We really did a lot of reflection at ISC to see how we are going to find those efficiencies in our department. We are a large department. We wanted to hone in and see what are those programs that are really working for community. What are those programs that are not reaching their targets? What can we do to really align with supporting the communities in the way that they want to be supported?” The government said it would produce a budget this fall. Continue Reading