Don’t Trample Indigenous Rights! Stop Aiding Canada’s Billionaires!
by Gary Porter
The NDP government of British Columbia, the Ontario Tory government, and the Liberal federal government of Mark Carney have all recently hurried through legislation designed to rush major economic development. The new laws speed up regulatory approvals and “consultations” to clear the way for massive fossil fuel, mining and infrastructure projects such as dams, highways and mega real estate schemes.
Major corporations, their bankers and powerful lobbyists have been increasingly impatient with evolving environmental and climate change regulation, as well as the recognized right of Indigenous people to be fully and fairly consulted before bulldozers change lives forever.
For the billionaires who own these companies, our health, safety and long-term viability are of little concern. For them, profit is king. High profits, as soon as possible, is their overriding goal. They cannot tolerate longer and more thorough approvals, and costly compliance with socially necessary regulation. Liberal, Tory and NDP governments are moving quickly to meet corporate demands, despite the protests and demonstrated interests of workers and Indigenous people.
In British Columbia , The Infrastructure Projects Act is aimed at pushing through “provincially significant” projects. There is no definition of “provincially significant.” That will be left to Cabinet. Premier Eby emphasizes that Bill 15 will help BC capitalize on the global demand for low carbon electricity and drive economic growth by streamlining the approval process thereby facilitating the development of major infrastructure projects, including hospitals, schools, and community centers, which are crucial for the province's needs.
There are concerns that Bill 15 could bypass Indigenous rights and undermine the process of building relationships with First Nations. Eby has pledged that no infrastructure projects will be built without the consent of, and benefits for First Nations. He has also apologized to the First Nations Leadership Council for the perception of backsliding on reconciliation commitments.
Critics argue that Bill 15 risks undermining environmental protections and assessments, potentially allowing projects with significant environmental impacts to bypass crucial safeguards.
Critics have expressed concern that the bill gives the government broad discretionary powers that could lead to a lack of transparency and public engagement in project approvals. Eby emphasizes social infrastructure and green energy, however the BC NDP government approved the massive Site C dam on the Peace River primarily to provide power to the fracking industry, plus the Trans Link Pipeline to ship methane (so-called natural gas) to Kitimat for delivery to the U.S. and Asia. When Wet’suwet’en elders led large protests against this pipeline, the NDP Solicitor General signed off on repeated RCMP heavily armed attacks on peaceful, unarmed Indigenous protestors. Recently Eby approved the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline over strong objections of Indigenous elders on at least one part of the pipeline.
In a statement, Simooget (Chief) Watakhayetsxw Deborah Good said the decision “isn’t the end of the story.” She was one of the Gitanyow Chiefs who set up a blockade last August when pipeline construction started, barring any industry-related traffic from passing through. “We’ll continue to fight to protect our territory (Lax’yip) with all actions needed, in the courts and on the ground,” she said. “From August to November 2024, we denied access for PRGT pipeline construction and we’ll be continuing our efforts to ensure no construction happens on our territory,” she said.
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, said approving the pipeline directly contradicts the government’s stated commitment to uphold Indigenous Rights, which was passed into law in 2019 along with B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. “There are First Nations who have very loudly stated their opposition to this pipeline and they will continue to do so,” Phillip proclaimed. “The Declaration Act and interim approach are being tossed out the window. This is not a government who believes in reconciliation and it could trigger a long, hot summer.”
Premier Eby’s nice words about green energy and social projects lack credibility. Eby admitted in December 2024 that BC has no chance of meeting previously set greenhouse gas reduction goals as part of the Paris climate change agreement signed in 2016. Well-informed people knew, back in 2019, that these goals would be grossly violated when the gas pipeline to Kitimat and the huge liquefaction processing plant to be built there, were approved. Eby and NDP Premier John Horgan before him, established their bona fides as loyal agents of the ruling class, in opposition to all environmental and indigenous activists.
In Ontario, Bill 5 is now the law, the Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act. It gives Conservative Premier Ford and his cabinet the power to create special economic zones and exempt companies or projects from having to comply with any provincial law, regulation or municipal bylaws. The Act is a direct attack on healthy communities, good planning, clean water and air, species at risk, and the rights of Indigenous people—all to benefit a handful of the government’s hand-picked corporate friends.
While the province’s press release on Bill 5 is chock full of supportive quotes from mining executives and business organizations, the public response — from many Indigenous organizations and environmental groups — is one of deep concern. Several hundred Indigenous people protested Bill 5 on the front lawn of Queen's Park on June 2 in defense of their treaty rights. Several First Nations of Treaty 9, which covers the mineral-rich Ring of Fire in northern Ontario that the government has promised to “unlock” as an economic hub, responded with an open letter to the province. They promised to go to court over the omnibus bill, if necessary. “These lands are not Ontario’s to do with as they wish. They are our ancestral lands. We have always been here and are going nowhere,” Donny Morris, Chief of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, said in the letter. “Whatever Ford and his government might want their base to think, nothing is happening up here without our consent.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney tabled the One Canadian Economy Act on June 6. The PM said the bill (now law) will, on the one hand, speed up the approval process of major infrastructure projects, reducing approval times from five years to two, by introducing a "one-project, one-review" approach instead of having federal and provincial approval processes happen sequentially. This legislation gives them the ability to just delete laws from consideration that may be delaying new builds. The legislation also changes interprovincial trade rules in a race-to-the-bottom system. Rules acceptable in any province will be deemed acceptable in all provinces although it is not clear how the feds plan to skirt provincial powers under section 92 of the Canadian Constitution.
In a period of increasing disregard for previously hard-won civil liberties and democratic rights, all in aid of resisting declining rates of profit, at any cost. These Acts are one more sign of the urgent need for labour unionists, rank and file New Democrats, environmental and Indigenous activists and immigrant rights defenders to come together to fight this trend in Canada and across the western imperial powers – by any means necessary.