Latest news with #IdleNoMore2.0
Global News
2 days ago
- Business
- Global News
Carney's major projects bill sails through committee. What's next?
Running roughshod over the environment. Spawning the next Idle No More movement. Picking economic winners and losers. Prime Minister Mark Carney's Building Canada Act is anything if not a magnet for criticism. The Liberal government's controversial legislation that would let cabinet quickly grant federal approvals for big industrial projects like mines, ports and pipelines sailed through committee in the early hours of Thursday. A House of Commons panel sat from Wednesday afternoon to after midnight reviewing Bill C-5 in a hurried study, as the Liberal government seeks to pass it through the chamber by week's end. Indigenous and environmental groups, along with opposition MPs and senators, raised concerns that the bill is being rushed through parliament and will grant cabinet sweeping powers to override other laws to plow ahead with industrial projects favoured by the government of the day. Story continues below advertisement 'The process that led to Bill C-5 is a case study in how not to engage with Indigenous nations,' said Kebaowek First Nation Chief Lance Haymond, adding there was no 'meaningful engagement' or a 'recognition of the complexity of our rights, titles and interests.' 'The conditions for an Idle No More 2.0 uprising are being written into the law as we speak,' he told the House of Commons transport committee late Wednesday night. The legislation enjoys support from the business community and building trades, who testified to parliament that it can take longer to get projects approved than to get them built. Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc appeared at the hearings to defend the bill, warning Canada is weathering a 'storm of change' amid U.S. President Donald Trump's punishing trade war and that the country needs to quickly bolster the economy. 'Canadians have entrusted us to do things differently and better and move nation-building projects forward,' he said. 1:54 More pushback for Bill C-5 from Indigenous groups The bill is two pieces of legislation rolled into one, with the first part aimed at breaking down internal trade barriers – something Carney promised to achieve by Canada Day. Story continues below advertisement The second part grants the government the ability to designate major projects to be in the 'national interest,' then fast-track their approval. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Thanks to help from the Conservatives, who won a handful of amendments to the bill, the Liberal legislation appears on track to clear the Commons at a brisk pace. Even still, the Tories and the Bloc Québécois raised concerns that it consolidates too much power in the hands of the prime minister and his cabinet. In a series of testy exchanges with LeBlanc, Bloc Québécois MP Xavier Barsalou-Duval said there's no guarantee that the minister in charge of the new process will act in the best interests of the public by granting itself far-reaching powers. 'What we have at the end of the day is a series of decisions that will be made behind closed doors … and nothing guarantees that you won't transform yourself into the minister of cronyism,' he said in French. 'I do not agree that this bill opens the door to corruption,' LeBlanc said in French. As some MPs trotted out comparisons to the Emergencies Act, LeBlanc balked at the idea and added that it's not comparable to a 'White House presidential order,' either. Conservative MP Philip Lawrence pressed LeBlanc on whether there are sufficient ethics screens in place. Story continues below advertisement He noted that Carney previously chaired Brookfield, which has a hand in infrastructure and construction, reviving conflict of interest concerns about Carney's past ties to the firm that the party brought up constantly throughout the recent election. LeBlanc said elected officials would continue to be bound by current ethics rules. 1:46 Can the Liberal government's trade bill unify Canada's economy? Critics lined up on Wednesday to warn one after another that the bill could pose a threat to species at risk and allow Ottawa to sidestep its duty to consult with Indigenous Peoples. 'The last thing we want to do is hold up industry and projects with court cases, and this is exactly where it's headed,' Trevor Mercredi, grand chief of the Treaty 8 First Nations of Alberta, told the Commons committee. 'We say go back to the drawing board,' Charles Hatt, climate program director with Ecojustice, said at a press conference. Story continues below advertisement Anna Johnston, a lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law, said the bill throws the principle of informed decision-making 'out the window.' 'Allowing cabinet to decide whether projects proceed before reviewing them is like building a house and then calling an engineer to ask if it's safe,' she said. Liberal MP Marcus Powlowski said he understands the concerns raised by Indigenous and environmental groups but believes the government needs to act quickly. 'Are we going to continue to put this on hold, to tinker with it and make slight amendments? I think it's important we pass this legislation and there's always an opportunity afterwards to amend it,' he said. Heather Exner-Pirot of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute think tank warned the bill lets political Ottawa pick winners and losers and is 'rife with potential for abuse,' but she said she does not oppose it. She said at the hearings that the Canadian economy needs to be turned around at a critical moment, and this should be the start of broader reforms to spur investment. 'What good is a pipeline if the emissions cap means you can't fill it? What good is a railway if the Impact Assessment Act means you can't mine products to ship on it?' The House is scheduled to sit until Friday, and a Senate programming motion has the upper chamber wrapping up its examination of Bill C-5 by June 27. Story continues below advertisement — With files from Kyle Duggan, Alessia Passafiume, David Baxter and Sarah Ritchie
Hamilton Spectator
30-05-2025
- Politics
- Hamilton Spectator
Idle No More 2.0 will be ‘fierce' if Doug Ford moves ahead with Bill 5
First Nations leaders in northern Ontario are vowing an 'Idle No More 2.0' if the province passes Bill 5, legislation designed to speed up development without clear rules on Indigenous consultation and accommodation. 'If and when this becomes law, say next week or after that, there will be fierce resistance from our side,' Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler said on Thursday, representing the chiefs of 49 communities in the province's far north. 'I know my dear friend Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief Linda Debassige has said the same thing. 'This is what we're looking at: Idle No More 2.0.' Debassige referenced the 2012 movement that asserted Indigenous rights and sovereignty across Canada in response to federal omnibus legislation in a statement Anishinabek Nation issued on Tuesday. She urged Premier Doug Ford to immediately withdraw the controversial Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act, saying, 'we caution the provincial government that should Bill 5 proceed in its current form, we will be idle no more.' That statement followed two days of deputations that chiefs and grand chiefs across the province made to the Standing Committee on the Interior over the past week. All of those deputations called for the government to scrap the bill and start again with consultation, while deputations referenced the possibility of demonstrations or direct action if the bill passes. First Nations argue the series of laws that Bill 5 amends, such as the Mining Act and the Endangered Species Act, comprise a legal regime on free, prior and informed consultation and accommodation. The bill proposes new 'special economic zones' the minister can designate without size or impact limitation, that would exempt developers from following defined regulations and protocols on Indigenous engagement. 'They need to provide more details, procedures and protocols with this duty to consult,' said Nibinamik (Summer Beaver First Nation) Chief Michael Sugarhead. 'When other development comes, such as mining engagement, that we've been having recently, our rights aren't really considered.' Nibinamik is located about 100 kilometres west of the 5,000-square-kilometre Ring of Fire mineral deposit, which Ford has said he will name as the first special economic zone. Twenty years after prospectors found the deposit, Sugarhead said Ontario still refuses to recognize nearby First Nations as full partners and he's concerned this legislation will deeply impact the land while leaving future generations in poverty.'How is this going to help our community? We live in third-world conditions and it's like that because of the government,' he said. Sugarhead said the residual effects of this are poor health, poor education, and poor standards of living. 'Reconciliation is imperative in this case, to have that meaningful partnership and participation in this type of development. If it's not there, I don't think that the people of the land will give their free, prior and informed consent.' Facing mounting opposition, Progressive Conservative committee members introduced 23 amendments to Bill 5 on Wednesday, including one that made explicit the government's commitment to abide by its constitutional responsibility to consult and 'affirmation of existing Aboriginal and treaty rights.' Nibinamik's lawyer, Zachary Davis, accused the Doug Ford Conservatives of committing 'lip service' to Indigenous rights, insisting the amendment is legally empty. 'The government's just admitting what is already true,' Davis said. 'These are constitutional obligations. It provides no certainty.' Sol Mamakwa , Kiiwetinoong NDP MPP and the only First Nations member of the Legislature, called the PC's amendments 'meaningless, unserious, and worse than useless,' while he accused the government of 'placing itself above and beyond the law.' Mamakwa introduced two separate motions in committee that would have seen hearings on Bill 5 take place in Thunder Bay and other parts of northern Ontario. PC committee members defeated them both. Indigenous minister Greg Rickford said during question period on Wednesday that consultation with First Nations will begin after the bill is passed. To that end, his government will introduce, 'Indigenous-led economic zones.' Rickford said in a statement to Ricochet Media that his office intends, 'to work throughout the summer in consultation with Indigenous partners to develop regulations to create new Indigenous-led economic zones as part of Bill 5. This amendment creating a new category of zone is at the request of some First Nations who, like us, want to build projects that will unlock economic prosperity for generations.' But Fiddler says Ontario has offered no direction or definition of what such a zone designation would entail. 'The impression we're getting is that they're just making things up on the fly,' Fiddler said. 'I think it's too late in the process to try to fix this bill with any kind of amendments, including creating Indigenous-led economic zones. We don't even know what that means.' The Mushkegowuk Council is meeting in Sault Ste. Marie to discuss the bill on Thursday, including representatives of Moose Cree First Nation. On April 9, Moose Cree Chief Peter Wesley stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Ontario energy minister Stephen Lecce to announce the construction of two new hydroelectric facilities that will generate 430 megawatts in the shared traditional territory with Taykwa Tagamou Nation. By the end of May, Ontario introduced Bill 5. Wesley couldn't believe it. 'We were involved from the very initial stages of the project and to have minister Lecce acknowledge that, wow, this is the groundwork of how it should be,' he said. 'What happened? To have Bill 5 come out, and 'we'll think about adding consultation as an afterthought?' It's not going to work. A few weeks ago, we thought we were on the right path. I don't know if that's there anymore.' Moose Cree has been expressing disapproval of a prospective niobium mine 25 kilometres up the North French River since 2019. Wesley says he has voiced his community's opposition to the project in written letters to both Ford and Rickford, but has received no Cree members took the train to demonstrate in Ottawa during the 2012 Idle No More movement. Wesley believes that if Bill 5 passes, his community will be prepared to stand up once more.'There might be a lot of civil unrest by First Nations again,' he said. 'We have some very outspoken members who will not stand for the North French to be touched – and they've made their views pretty clear.'
