Province shirks its duty to consult

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/02/2022 (1348 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Last month, a lawsuit was filed in an effort to halt logging by Louisiana Pacific in our ancestral lands, which includes what is now called Duck Mountain Provincial Park and Provincial Forest. The government of Manitoba is required to conduct meaningful consultations with us under the Canadian Constitution, including when it does business deals with private companies for commercial logging. Simply put, Manitoba has bypassed its duty to consult.

(On Wednesday, a second lawsuit was filed, seeking a moratorium on logging and other forestry development in Porcupine Mountain Provincial Forest and Kettle Hills, and asking the court to direct the government of Manitoba to conduct meaningful consultation with Wuskwi Sipihk First Nation before any further logging licenses are granted.)

Although this is a legal issue, it goes much deeper. This is a case that highlights how our country, from coast to coast to coast, must shift to a new way of thinking about resource management and reconciliation.

Since 1994, Louisiana Pacific has held logging rights to an area which encompasses Duck Mountain Provincial Park and Provincial Forest. Louisiana Pacific is global, headquartered in Nashville, with sales of $2.8 billion in 2020, of which an unknown portion of those sales are attributable to the Louisiana Pacific plant in our ancestral territory. This is the only provincial park in Manitoba where the government allows commercial timber cutting to continue, and one of only two provincial parks in Canada that allows commercial logging (Algonquin Provincial Park is the other).

The people of Minegoziibe Anishinaabe receive zero compensation for logging on our traditional lands, an area that is under extraordinary stress from the cumulative impacts of forestry activities, and other industrial, recreational and agricultural pressures. Meanwhile, we have homeless members residing in urban centres and our housing capacity is nowhere near meeting the needs of a fast growing population of young families.

This is a watershed moment in our pushback to industry and governments which do not listen to us as Anishinaabe people. We have occupied the lands and waters in and around Duck Mountain since time immemorial. It has provided us with everything from fresh meat and medicines to building materials and ceremony spaces. The Duck Mountain area is within Treaty 2 and Treaty 4, negotiated decades before the province of Manitoba expanded beyond its initial boundaries, and decades before a provincial park was placed within our traditional territory.

Through Treaty, our relationship is with the Crown. It is not with settler colonial politicians who push the financial interest of multi-national corporations within our territory. This is a clear conflict of interest. The way past conflicts of interest is through nation-to-nation relationships which require dialogue, accountability and transparency.

We have witnessed a declining and slow-to-recover moose population, which impacts our ability to provide a stable food source to our families, and impacts the overall health of our people as we face an epidemic of diabetes. We rely on the moose, and the fish. In the last two generations, we have struggled to maintain cultural continuity and we cannot rebuild nor reclaim our language and our proud land-based traditions if forced to rely on processed foods from big box stores.

Like everyone else, Anishinaabe people are trying to navigate our way into a better future during uncertain times. We can no longer rely on standards of consultation that were established decades ago. We are prepared to drag the province of Manitoba into the 21st century if need be, to renew relationships based on transparency and accountability.

For us, that begins here, at Duck Mountain. We need a process that respects our involvement, that includes credible science, that ensures our management of the moose herd, and that recognizes our ceremonies, our health, our language and are culture are preserved on the mountain.

We are reclaiming our spaces that we were forced to vacate for a very long time. We are past words or symbolism or pageantry. Now is the time for real action. Partnering with First Nations governments in a mutually respectful and beneficial manner must be the new normal, as called for by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. On June 21, 2021, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act received Royal Assent, marking a historic milestone in Canada. It emphasizes meaningful participation by Indigenous peoples in decisions that affect our communities and territories.

Our young people are demanding new standards in how we lead. They want to be proud and grounded in their Anishinaabe identity. They want to know they are safe in learning our language, and hunting on the traditional territories of our people.

They want to see that this is a new era in Canada. It is up to all of us at leadership tables to make sure we are creating pathways for that vision to be realized.

Derek Nepinak is chief of Minegoziibe Anishinaabe (formerly known as Pine Creek First Nation), which is in Treaty 4 territory, is located 110 kilometres north of Dauphin and includes 4,000 Anishinaabeg members.