Matawa First Nations are more than stakeholders in their territories, they tell Ontario

An omnibus bill introduced by the government of Ontario in late October has Matawa First Nations reminding the province of the Unity Declaration passed by their nine chiefs in 2011.

“It was a pretty strong statement in terms of our chiefs asserting their rights, in terms of inherent rights and Treaty rights,” said the nations’ CEO David Paul Achneepineskum. “We would continue to assert that and hopefully the province of Ontario will come to our table and meet with us and work with a Treaty partnership.”

Matawa First Nations is a tribal council with nine nation members, eight of which are signatory to Treaty 9. The tribal council provides a variety of advisory services and program delivery to its member nations.

They are concerned that Bill 132, the Better for People, Smarter for Business Act, includes amendments to the Mining Act that sets out to undermine the authority of First Nations over their territories.

Bill 132 strengthens the decision-making power of the director of exploration for the province’s Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines. In so doing, First Nations in Ontario with exploration and mine production within their traditional territories or Treaty lands would see the duty to consult and accommodate impacted, along with the interpretations of all provisions, policies and regulations that govern the day-to-day operations as the government will have delegated authority for approval.

“We want to remind Ontario and the premier that our Matawa communities, at least eight of them, are part of Treaty No. 9 and there should be a direct relationship with the government of Ontario. We’re not merely stakeholders,” said Achneepineskum.

The Unity Declaration states, in part, “…We assert our Aboriginal and Treaty rights to the land, water and resources by requiring our written consent before any development activity may proceed. Failure to consult, accommodate and receive the consent of the First Nation(s) to proceed with any work or activity is unjustified infringement upon our Aboriginal, Treaty and Custodial rights as First Nations.”

However, two-way communication between Matawa First Nations as an organization and the province has been almost non-existent since the Doug Ford Conservatives came to power in June 2018.

Achneepineskum says neither Premier Ford nor Greg Rickford, who holds the portfolios for both Indigenous Affairs and energy, northern development and mines, has responded to repeated requests for meetings.

Even concerns voiced by the Matawa First Nations in April after the province announced its intentions to unilaterally repeal the Far North Act went unanswered. Then and now, the Matawa First Nations say they are concerned that repealing the Far North Act would put the lands of the James Bay Treaty No. 9 under the amended Public Lands Act, which will mean inherent Aboriginal and Treaty rights will not be recognized.

“That tells us they don’t recognize our Treaty relationships,” said Achneepineskum, who pointed out that Ontario was also a signatory to the James Bay Treaty No. 9, which he says is about sharing the benefits from the land. 

The Matawa First Nations will not be sitting still while it waits for the government to respond.

“We’ll continue to meet with the people who have interest, (such as) industry. What we’re saying is we want to see not just token benefits out of it, we want to be owners and operators … in terms of any development,” said Achneepineskum.

He holds firm that within Matawa First Nations’ land there are potential resources that can benefit Ontario and Canada, as well as the First Nations.

“We also want to make sure that our people that live there, not just in Matawa, but in other Treaty 9 communities, that they will have direct benefits, to bring up our standards of living, to have every opportunity for anybody who wants to work, that the opportunities be there,” said Achneepineskum.

That is also a sentiment that holds true with the new Rapid Lynx broadband project which, he says, Matawa First Nations were never consulted on. In October, the province gave $30 million, which along with the federal funding of $39 million, will bring state of the art next-generation high-speed broadband to internet dead spots in five fly-in/remote First Nations in the Matawa region.

Matawa First Nations, however, want to push for control and authority over and gain benefit from the project.

“Matawa is going to own/operate the broadband fibre network where every community will be fibre-to-home,” said Achneepineskum.  “At the end we will own and operate it and that’s how we see (it) in terms of moving forward, whether it’s a road or providing energy development, electricity, Matawa would be owners and operators to that.”

Matawa First Nations chiefs will be meeting over the next weeks to determine how to move forward on Bill 132, he says.