The first-ever climate adaptation report released by the federal government a few weeks ago touted its inclusion of three prominent Indigenous organizations as a success for the Liberals — and for climate change at large.
The Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience panel of experts was assembled in July last year to evaluate the ways communities across the country are impacted by climate change and how they hope to mitigate the problems.
A spokesperson for Catherine McKenna, the minister of environment and climate change, said they asked the Assembly of First Nations, the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and the Metis National Council to select their own representation for the council.
These Indigenous experts “played an instrumental role on the panel… including educating other panel members about the impacts of climate change on First Nations, Inuit, and the Métis Nation,” the spokesperson said on McKenna’s behalf.
That sentiment was echoed by Blair Feltmate, the chair of the expert panel, who said the Indigenous voice added a “sense of urgency” to the discussion.
“The Indigenous representatives drove home the message that climate change action needs to happen now,” he said.
The 1.6 million Indigenous peoples living in over 600 recognized First Nations governments in Canada are arguably some of the most at risk when it comes to climate change. It is a potential “threat” to the “very existence” of their communities, according to the United Nations. A changing climate threatens species like the polar bears, walrus, and seals that Inuit peoples rely on for hunting and gathering in Canada’s Arctic territories. The changes also bring an unpredictability in the weather and safety issues with travelling over ice, which all pose “serious challenges to human health and food security.”
All three Indigenous groups included in the expert panel refused to comment for this piece despite repeated attempts to contact them.
So is the Canadian government doing enough to consult these peoples on the changes impacting their communities?
Tero Mustonen has worked as an intermediary for the Canadian government and Indigenous groups through his work at Snowchange, an international non-profit organization based in Finland. He has travelled across the Arctic, parts of northern B.C. and Ontario for the last 25 years working with Indigenous peoples on issues of climate change, and said the conversations have become more progressive as time goes on.
“The only word for what we’ve seen in the last 25 years is ‘transformation,’ regarding how Indigenous peoples are doing and what are their specific issues,” Mustonen said in a phone call from Finland.
A wave of change began to build up in the wake of the 1974 Berger Inquiry into the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline. The report at that time proposed that the pipeline not be built until Indigenous land claim rights were resolved and an environmental impact assessment was conducted.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, conducted to bring about widespread reconciliation efforts with the country’s Indigenous peoples after the residential school crisis, said the Berger Inquiry was a turning point for Indigenous consultation in climate change action — and called for more investigations like it in the future.
“As Canada maps its economic future in regions covered by historical Treaties, modern land claims agreements, and unceded Aboriginal title, governments and industry must now recognize that accommodating the rights of Aboriginal peoples is paramount to Canada’s long-term economic sustainability,” the Truth and Reconciliation report reads. “Governments aim to secure the economic stability and growth necessary to ensuring prosperity for all Canadians.”
Consultation with Indigenous peoples on matters of climate change was pointed out in the commission’s 92nd recommendation, which calls on the government to “commit to meaningful consultation, building respectful relationships, and obtaining the free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous peoples before proceeding with economic development projects.”
Mustonen said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s support of Indigenous peoples through new government programs have made Indigenous self-governance and participation into climate change discussions a reality for some communities across the country.
In February, Prime Minister Trudeau announced he would dedicate two ministers to rebuild relationships with Indigenous peoples: Jane Philpott, minister of Indigenous Services, and Carolyn Bennett, minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs.
Soon after the announcement, Bennett’s new ministry dedicated $27.6 million to support climate change adaptation and increase the resilience of Indigenous and Northern communities for the 2018-2019 year. The Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change also promises to integrate community-level climate change data collection, risk assessment planning and flood plain mapping with traditional Indigenous practices.
But progress heavily depends on geographical location. Mustonen pointed to the Dehcho First Nations near the Mackenzie River, who designed a plan to integrate traditional knowledge and Western science to conserve their lands with the assistance of the Canadian government.
They also negotiated with the Crown (in this case, the territorial government) to increase the size of nearby Nahanni National Park to preserve 42 species of mammals and 180 types of birds throughout the Northwest Territories.
The Haida First Nations have also initiated several semi-autonomous programs to preserve the lands of the Haida Gwaii, otherwise known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, off the cost of British Columbia. A conflict in the 1970s over logging permits on Athlii Gwaay or Lyell Island, ended in the federal and provincial governments signing memorandums of understanding with the Haida peoples to designate the land a heritage site and to allow self-governance of the First Nation on the land so they could protect their environment.
However, the First Nation says on their website that negotiations with the government on the forestry and fishery industries were less successful, prompting them to launch case against the government in court. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 2004 that Canada and British Columbia have a legal duty to consult First Nations when they have knowledge “of the potential of the aboriginal right or title and contemplates conduct that might adversely affect it.”
A reciprocal Crown-Indigenous relationship will be fundamental to create lasting environmental change in these locations, Mustonen says.
“Indigenous peoples, if there is a respectful relationship, they will contribute their knowledge of territorial ecosystems and oral histories of the land,” he said. “This is central to what is going on with climate change.”
However, the federal and provincial governments sometimes present Indigenous peoples with a conflicting message, Mustonen continued, through its expansion and investments into the oil and gas industry in different parts of the country.
Take the Trans Mountain pipeline, for example. New data shows Kinder Morgan — the company running the development of the Trans Mountain pipeline until the government’s announced its purchase of the project in May — does not have agreements with over 85 First Nations groups that will be affected by the development throughout Alberta and British Columbia.
“You can’t have a pipeline going through unceded territory and at the same time say: we are working hard to cut emissions,” Mustonen said.
Another area of contention is the Ring of Fire in northern Ontario — a massive chromite mining and development project planned for the James Bay Lowlands near McFaulds Lake. Potential developers are required to negotiate an Impact Benefit Agreement with the nine First Nations group in the area.
Before the Ontario election, the Wynne government said it was willing to invest more than $6.9 in negotiations with the Matawa First Nations to assist with development in their area — but, according to experts, did not do any consultation into how it could impact the environment in the Far North.
“We might better ensure that projects result in real, sustainable gains for First Nations communities and all Ontarians,” scientists Cheryl Chetkiewicz and Justina Ray wrote in a recent opinion piece for the Toronto Star. “We’ve seen no effort to strategically assess what is at stake ecologically before introducing mines, roads and transmission lines into one of the world’s last intact wild areas.”
Ontario’s new premier Doug Ford said during the recent election campaign that he would ride a bulldozer into the Ring of Fire himself to steer development forward. This aggressive pro-industry rhetoric raised some concern from RoseAnne Archibald, the newly elected Ontario Regional Chief of the Chiefs of Ontario.
“Consultation is the order of business today,” she said in an interview with iPolitics. “That kind of aggressive language during the election I hope was more rhetoric.”
For those communities fighting for self-governance, Mustonen said there are discussions underway with McKenna’s office to create a forum where Indigenous leaders could meet with Crown representatives from across the country to coordinate a response to bigger climate change issues.
“The work is still halfway done,” he said. “In order to transform Canada out of the dark colonial era … yes, there are areas of success but there are still hundreds of communities that will feel the impact of climate change today, tomorrow, next year.”