Some leaders and citizens of the first nations in Manitoba say they are concerned about the recent impulse of the province to create new energy extraction, commerce and resources projects in the north.
Shortly after the liberals won a minority government in the federal elections last April, Manitoba Prime Minister Wab Kinew sent a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney to present five important resources projects in the province that could be accelerated.
In the upper part of the Kinew list there was a project that called “a commercial corridor of Canada”, which would create a possible center for critical minerals and fossil fuel exports through the port of Churchill in northern Manitoba to diversify the commercial relations of Canada.
The existing port, which is accessed through the railway door rail system, is promoted as the shortest link from the meadows to the Atlantic Ocean, offering access to the Arctic, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and South America.
Critical mineral exploration conversations and possible oil shipments in northern Manitoba are not new, but Kinew has been increasingly vocal about A renewed case for the port As a way to relieve commercial tensions with the United States since President Donald Trump returned to office last January.
However, Garrison Settee, the great head of the Northern Nations Defense Organization, Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, says that any new project must respect and protect the rights of the treaty, which are “inherent rights [that] They have been there since time immemorial. “
He is also worried in the north who have already suffered negative impacts of hydroelectric projects.
“There is always that hurry, which tells us that there is only a limited opportunity” to get involved in resource extraction projects, Settee said at a press conference on Friday, adding that he does not believe it is true.
“Minerals will always be there, and nothing will happen unless the first nations in those territories say it will happen.”
‘True Association from the Nation to Nation’: Kinew
The Hudson Bay Railroad, which opened in 1929 and was privatized after the Federal Government sold the Canadian National Railroad in 1995, is the only link of the Earth between Churchill and the rest of the province, which crosses remote and soaking ground.
The rail link has suffered long interruptions of the service in the past, including a closure of 18 months under its previous US owners after severe floods in 2017.
Last year, federal and provincial governments announced that each one would become $ 30 million to improve the railroad – Now owned and operated by Arctic Gateway Group, an association of dozen communities of First Nation and Bayline, and begins to rebuild the port. Before that, the federal government had put a total of more than $ 215 million for rail improvements.
In his letter to Carney, Kinew said that his government is looking for investments in Rompehielos to expand the shipping season through Hudson Bay, which is currently only operational in warmer months, and for the new “energy generation and transmission to feed the project.”
“Our skilled workforce and a true association of the nation to the nation with indigenous governments allows us to obtain shovels on the ground faster,” Kinew wrote to Carney.
Kinew also said that his government is adopting a “approach to the indigenous association of the crown … to involve the private sector” for an expansion to the port of Churchill.
Ontario legislation causes tension
Meanwhile, next to Manitoba, a controversial legislation that aims to accelerate the development of resources on behalf of “unleashing” Ontario’s economic potential is rubbing some in the wrong way.
The Bill 5 of Ontario, or the Ontario protecting by unleashing our Economy Law, was approved last week. It will allow Ontario to create special economic zones, where companies or projects may be exempt from having to comply with a provincial law, a provincial regulation or a municipal statute.
In recent weeks, dozens of leaders and conservation groups of the first nation have been talking against the bill, arguing that they trample the rights of treaties and weakens environmental protections.
The assembly of the first nations says that it is organizing a virtual forum for bosses throughout the country on Monday to discuss Ontario legislation and the broader implications of similar legislation throughout Canada.
The forum was announced one day after the national chief of AFN, Cindy Woodhouse, Nepeinak met with Carney, who repeated the intention of his government to introduce federal legislation to accelerate federal approvals for certain infrastructure projects considered in national interest, the assembly said in a press release.
The AFN is “deeply concerned about the lack of time and the appropriate process to carry out the obligations for consultation and consent of the crown, especially given the potentially massive impact on the rights of the first nations,” he said.
Mihskakwan James Harper, a member of the Board based in Manitoba of the non -profit indigenous energy and the Pembina Institute, a group of clean energy experts, says that oil shipping conversations through northern Manitoba are closely connected to the bill 5 of Ontario.
However, he says that the federal government’s impulse for new resources projects seems to disagree with its own goal of reducing Net zero carbon emissions for 2050And that could leave the communities of the first nations that participate in the property of gas and oil infrastructure in the future.
“That makes these investments of possible stranded assets,” Harper told CBC News in a statement on Friday. “Indigenous communities can keep the invoice, not only for financial losses, but also for the expensive cleaning of projects abandoned by the industry.”
Either by rail or rail, Harper says that oil shipments through northern Manitoba would threaten the surrounding lands and waters with spills, leaks and other irreversible damages.
The port of Churchill is “already ecologically vulnerable” and “could become another risk site for the good of a project that does not serve the long -term well -being of the communities of the north,” he said.
‘Living territories, do not reserve’
Jerry Daniels, the great head of the South Chiefs Organization, which represents 32 first nations in southern Manitoba, says that leaders must be in tune with the lands that are looking for resource projects, especially because forest fires out of control have expelled thousands of their homes in northern Manitoba in recent weeks.
“By hurrying to build pipelines or energy runners, you must recognize that the earth is alive, so whatever we do has to respect the long -term sustainability of the earth,” he said on Friday.
“The fires [are] It is already very harmful to the north, so we have to take that into account when we are talking about large -scale development projects. “
A CREE defender of northern Manitoba says that the situation of the forest fire shows how “delicate” is the ecological system of the northern Boreal forest of Manitoba.
“These forest fires are part of climate change, and currently climate change, why would you continue looking for resources to extraction resources that accelerate the climate change process?” Lisa Currier, who grew up in Nelson House, told CBC News on Friday.
She opposes any new resource extraction project in the north, saying that Manitoba is not a “blank map for industrial exploitation.”
“These are living territories, do not reserve, and treat them as basic products delete our responsibilities and our inherent rights,” he said.
Attempts to accelerate resource extraction projects could generate protests throughout the country, Currier said.
“Our resistance to this is not radical. It is our responsibility towards Earth and towards our inherent right as indigenous peoples, the original people of this land.”
