First Nations gain Ontario agreement to co lead regional impact assessment
The James Bay / Hudson Bay lowlands in northern Ontario is the homeland territory for many First Nations in Mushkegowuk and Matawa Tribal Councils (and others). They have always been there, have always effectively governed there and protected and managed the lands and resources.
These lowlands constitute the second largest peatlands in the world. Peat is a highly effective “carbon sink” – storing carbon (a greenhouse gas) from the atmosphere, in its soil. It typically stores far more than do forests and grasslands. This area is therefore incredibly important for preventing worsening climate change. Conversely, if all that carbon already trapped there were to be released – which could happen if the peatlands collapse from mining and other industrial development being proposed – this would worsen climate conditions overnight; something from which we might not recover.
Yet the Ontario government and large multinational mining companies are pushing to commence a mega mining complex in the middle of the lowlands, in a mineral deposit called the Ring of Fire.
Such a mining development could be the size of the Alberta tarsands.
First Nation clients of Woodward & Company Lawyers LLP are very concerned that large scale industrial development there could be irreversibly harmful. They are pushing for a thorough, comprehensive and careful investigation of what all such impacts could be, and what consequences could result, before any such development is approved. They are pushing that First Nations co lead this investigation – a regional impact assessment – and that their jurisdiction to decide what happens in their territories is respected as being equal to the Crown’s. Their position is that Treaty 9, which covers this area, is a co-jurisdiction treaty that did not give permission to the Crown to subjugate and take over all decision-making authority.
Canada recently agreed to having a First Nations’ co-led regional assessment. The next step is to design it, then carry it out.
Click here to read more at Global News, including insight from Woodward & Company Senior Counsel, Kate Kempton.