Manitoba, First Nations sign forestry plan agreement

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This article was published 28/06/2024 (492 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A historic agreement has been reached between the province and three First Nations from the Parkland region near Swan River, establishing the basis for First Nation input into local forest management.

The memorandum of understanding signed Friday in an ornate meeting room in the Manitoba Legislative Building was years in the making.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said it will provide a much-needed level of certainty for the forestry industry centred around the Louisiana-Pacific Canada wood siding plant near Minitonas.

Leaders of the three First Nations — Minegoziibe Anishinabe, Wuskwi Sipihk and Sapotaweyak Cree — called it a precedent-setting event, with a government-to-government understanding that ensures First Nations will have a say in resource management on treaty land.

The agreement is the culmination of efforts that started even before Louisiana-Pacific submitted a draft forest management plan in 2019 that was later shown to have significant flaws and deficiencies regarding future management of resources.

There have been disputes with Louisiana-Pacific’s operations over the years, including concerns about clear cutting and on-going constraints on members of the three First Nations to be able to fully utilize treaty land entitlements to hunt and fish.

Kinew said those treaty rights issues had been addressed in the agreement, which also includes the introduction of an enhanced revenue-sharing scheme that adds a guaranteed floor on stumpage fees paid to the First Nations. Those fees had existed in the past, but had fluctuated and had been a source of uncertainty, officials said.

“We were shut out of the conversations about our own territory when it came to decisions about our surrounding forest. We appreciate that the province of Manitoba has taken a first step towards achieving a renewed treaty relationship. Much work remains to be done,” Wuskwi Sipihk Chief Elwood Zastre said Friday in Winnipeg.

“We have been raising concerns for more than a decade about the lack of an approved (forest management plan) in the region, as well as the overall failure to account for the protection of our treaty rights, the fair sharing of resources, or the protection of the lands, water, animals.”

Minegoziibe Anishinabe Chief Derek Nepinak added: “The MOU will establish a bilateral table to discuss joint decision making, including legislative and policy reforms to enhance our ability to exercise our inherent laws and responsibilities on issues related to stewardship, forestry management and planning.”

Eric Reder, director of the Manitoba field office of Wilderness Committee, said plenty of evidence of mismanagement had been compiled over time.

“I think this is the Manitoba government acknowledging that there has been a large problem with forest management and logging in western Manitoba,” he said. “And an acknowledgement that the First Nations in the region have a right to care for their territories and have a say in what happens.”

Meantime, Kinew emphasized the employment history and potential in the region. Louisiana-Pacific employs about 230 people in its plant in Minitonas and another 400 local contract loggers and haulers in the area some 300 kilometres north of Brandon.

“I was on the shop floor and spoke to the rank and file in hard hats and high-vis vests,” he said. “My job is to stand up for people like you. This is putting together the person swinging a chainsaw and the person hunting moose, sharing a path forward that will work for everyone.”

Among other things, the MOU extends Louisiana-Pacific’s operating licence by five years.

The goal is to have a 20-year forest management plan completed by the end of those five years that will be satisfactory to the provincial government, the three First Nations and Louisiana-Pacific.

Nashville-based parent company Louisiana-Pacific Corp. has been operating commercial forestry operations in the region on short-term licences since 2006, without a proper forest management plan required to account for risks and to achieve sustainability over the long term.

Regardless of the disputes with Louisiana-Pacific’s operations over the years, a company spokesperson said Friday responsible forest management “is at the core of our business model” and it is committed to “collaboration with Indigenous communities and the Manitoba government on sustainable forest management.”

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca