In today's newsletter:
• Vancouver Sun columnist Vaugh Palmer reports that Premier David Eby and the B.C. NDP face backlash for violating UNDRIP commitments by advancing Bill 15 without proper Indigenous consultation.
• Toronto Sun columnist Brian Lilley notes that premiers welcomed Prime Minister Mark Carney’s conciliatory tone but stressed he must take real action to address Western alienation.
• National Post columnist Jamie Sarkonak argues that Premier Danielle Smith is using separatist sentiment as leverage for a new federal deal, but her unrealistic demands risk weakening the larger conservative movement. |
|
|
NDP's 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. |
|
|
What Alberta Premier Danielle Smith wants is not independence, but a new “binding agreement” between the feds and the province that makes a number of guarantees, writes National Post columnist Jamie Sarkonak.
But, the premier is inflating the expectations of her followers by making a few unmeetable demands, and preparing to channel the resulting anger and disappointment into doomed dealmaking efforts that, at worst, will harm the country’s conservative movement overall.
|
|
|
|
