‘Treaties are above this law,’ Alty says of Bill C-5

Crown-Indigenous relations minister Rebecca Alty, who is also the NWT’s MP, says modern treaties take precedence over Bill C-5, Mark Carney’s nation-building legislation.

Carney co-chaired a meeting of Inuit leaders alongside Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami President Natan Obed on Thursday.

Also representing the federal government at that meeting in Inuvik were Alty, Indigenous services minister Mandy Gull-Masty and other members of cabinet.

One of the meeting’s main agenda items was the impact of Bill C-5, which many Indigenous leaders interpret as threatening their right to consultation and agency over their land and water.

Alty said modern treaties involve the process of co-management – jointly regulating major projects when they apply for the permits necessary to go ahead – and a duty to consult will remain, even under Bill C-5.

“It has to go through the co-management that’s in the treaties. And so yeah, at the end of the day, treaties are above this law. They have to be respected,” Alty told reporters outside Thursday’s meeting at Inuvik’s Midnight Sun Complex.

“Part of adding a project under this is we’ve got the duty to consult with the impacted rights-holders. They would say, ‘Yes, we want this to be under it.’ And then we go through the conditions. And one of the conditions can be approval through the co-management board.”

Gull-Masty said Carney had been “really clear” that Ottawa will respect the existing structures in place to manage project approval.

“Our objective is to ensure that we are undertaking this in a timely process. The message has always been leadership is invited to be a proponent, to be a partner,” she said.

“Indigenous, Inuit, Métis interest has to be there. There will be too much of a challenge to consider investing in a project that doesn’t have that interest.”

Ottawa ‘couldn’t have been clearer’

Obed said on Thursday he had received reassurances that Inuit voices will be respected as Canada embarks on Carney’s nation-building mission.

That mission involves Arctic sovereignty as a key pillar of Carney’s vision, and hundreds of millions of dollars in defence spending has been committed to the North, while northern leaders are trying to advance major projects like new highways.

“We’ve had reassurances that Bill C-5 – the legislation and the listed projects related to the implementation of Bill C-5 – will not interrupt the processes under our modern treaties, and that there will be full partnership of Inuit within these processes,” Obed told reporters during a break on Thursday.

Carney, Obed said, had been “unequivocal in stating that this legislation will not interrupt the processes that have been set up under our modern treaties when it comes to environmental assessment, comes to project reviews.”

“The prime minister and his cabinet ministers couldn’t have been any clearer in their assurances to Inuit leadership about the upholding of the constitutionally protected agreements that we have with the Crown,” he added, “that have clear provisions around how any natural resource projects go ahead in our settlement areas.”

Asked if that meant Inuit leaders held a veto over projects in their settlement areas, Obed said that wasn’t a term he would use.

“The term veto is often misconstrued as a bogeyman in these discussions about natural resources extraction projects on Indigenous peoples’ lands,” he said.

“Inuit have spent the last 40 years trying to figure out how to create circumstances where we are a part of the process all the way through and every single day, jurisdictions in this country veto projects. Sometimes it’s non-Indigenous governments that decide it is not in the best interest of that jurisdiction through legislation that they have created.

“We have democratic functions within our agreements that allow for us to agree or disagree, say yes or no, but ultimately, that is a part of the de-escalation of risk that industry wants to see, that government wants to see.”

In a statement, the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation – which hosted Thursday’s meeting – said the discussions had “highlighted the importance of closing infrastructure gaps across Inuit Nunangat, not just as a matter of fairness, but as a strategic national objective.”

It was “good to hear the federal government speaking of long-term investment in the North, and this meeting is a good start,” IRC Chair Duane Ningaqsiq Smith added.

In a brief statement on departing Inuvik, Carney said: “Today’s Inuit-Crown Partnership Committee meeting was about building our shared future and Inuit Nunangat’s full economic potential.

“In partnership, Inuit and the federal government will build major projects that connect and transform our economy, create greater prosperity and opportunities, and build a stronger Canada.”