A three-day meeting of the country’s premiers gets underway today, and the first item on the agenda is discussions with Indigenous groups.
The premiers are gathering at Deerhurst Resort in Ontario’s cottage country and trade and tariffs are expected to be the main topics, particularly when they meet Tuesday with Prime Minister Mark Carney.
But first they are set to have discussions with leaders from the Assembly of First Nations, the Métis National Council and the Native Women’s Association of Canada, among other Indigenous groups.
That meeting comes as Indigenous communities have expressed concerns with federal and provincial laws meant to fast-track major infrastructure projects as a way to stimulate the economy facing tariff impacts.
The federal law known as Bill C-5 allows cabinet to quickly grant federal approvals for big projects deemed to be in the national interest by sidestepping existing laws, while Ontario’s Bill C-5 allows its cabinet to suspend provincial and municipal laws through the creation of so-called “special economic zones.”
Nine Ontario First Nations have filed a court challenge to the laws and are concerned there will not be meaningful consultation with them.
Carney hosted a meeting with hundreds of First Nations chiefs last week and while some chiefs walked out saying they saw an insufficient response to concerns they’d been raising for weeks, others left the meeting “cautiously optimistic.”
Ford has said that over the course of the meeting this week, the premiers will also talk about emergency management, energy security, sovereignty and national security, health, and public safety.
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