In parts of the Northeast of Ontario, including areas in Sudbury and Timmins, First Nation voters could help decide the electoral results, according to the assembly of the first nations.
For Earl Commanda, Executive Director of Robinson Huron Waawiindamaagewin, a group that defends the rights of treaties in the area, this is the most reason for indigenous people to carefully weigh their options as they go to the polls on Monday.
“My advice for indigenous voters is to vote for the candidate who believes that he will protect and maintain the relationship we have with the federal government,” said Commanda.
He said that, during the last decade of the liberal domain, the relationship between Lake Huron Anishnaabek and the federal government was marked by a consistent legal battle on annuities, but also by the will to sit together and negotiate a resolution.
“We have noticed this trend with the current federal government that resolves many claims and class action claims.”
During their time in the government, Trudeau’s liberals almost tripled investments in indigenous communities, from more than $ 11 billion in 2015 to $ 32 billion in 2024, according to the Canada Finance Department.
Commandsa said that there are still important gaps in infrastructure, housing and social services, and that he is also concerned that key programs have interrupted by recent changes in Jordan’s main financing, but still: he asks how a different part would address spending on indigenous priorities.
“If it is a conservative leadership, what will that mean for us?”
Conservatives present ways to create economic prosperity in the first nations
In an attempt by the voters of the first nations, the conservative leader Pierre Poilievre spoke with Chiefs throughout the country in a forum organized by the assembly of the first nations earlier this week.
“I think the first nations can be the richest people in the entire world,” he said.
“Conservatives will take the government out of the way, so the first nations are no longer denied wealth and the opportunity that is their birth right.”
He shared different ideas to create economic prosperity for indigenous peoples, including financial incentives such as a reimbursable tax credit for companies that hold agreements with the first nations to develop resources such as mining or natural gas.
Other conservative promises include the introduction of an optional charge of resources of the first nations and the creation of a new corporation of indigenous opportunities and a fund of indigenous results.
But Commanda is not sold in this.
“It is promising that these things influence our vote … but there are many social, health and educational needs in our communities.”
Commandsa also disagrees with some of the other promises of the conservative platform, such as the opinion that the general auditor must be empowered to review the expense of indigenous governments.
“It’s quite easy for any citizen in Canada to see how the first nations are spending their money … I don’t know what else would you like,” said Commando.
The definition of consent for resource extraction projects remains a key topic
With only a few remaining days in the electoral campaign, candidates throughout the northeast of Ontario are making their last launch to indigenous voters, including Sault Ste. Marie-Algoma New Democrat Laura Mayer, member of the first Mississauga nation.
“The First Nation voters are very pragmatic: they consider the history of the matches and vote for who their candidates are,” he said while calling the doors at Garden River First Nation on Thursday.
She thinks that the first nations are moving to a new era with the federal government and does not want this relationship to be defined by the courts, especially when it comes to consent for resource projects.
In his opinion, the conservative platform focuses too much on the exchange of income, and not enough on consent as defined in the UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples (Undrip), that indigenous peoples have the right to give or retain consent for projects that affect them.
“It’s like: ‘Vote for me because you will have a tax revenue tax.’ It does not take into account all other programs, services, relationships we have between us,” Mayer said.
In 2021, liberals approved legislation that requires federal laws to be harmonized with Undrip.
Historically, conservatives have opposed this policy, and during their speech on Tuesday, Pailievre refused to support the law implemented by Undrip.
He said that his party supports Undrip’s objectives and aspirations, but that liberal legislation was approved before the government could develop an understanding of what exactly “free, prior and informed” consent “means” in a legal context.
