Election promises for Indigenous Peoples: What will be delivered?
During the federal election campaign, First Nations pressed Canada’s election leaders to include Indigenous Peoples in their promised energy plans.
Now we’ll see if and how the new minority Liberal government will do that.
Stephen Buffalo, president and CEO of the Indian Resource Council of Canada, was front and centre in insisting Indigenous Peoples must have a prime role in future energy plans and development.
Buffalo wrote in The Hill Times: “We want to work together to develop the resources that will help us—and all Canadians—make our way economically in the treacherous, uncertain world created by Trump.
“Getting started means including Indigenous people and institutions in national economic planning and policymaking in a meaningful way.”
And in a guest column in Financial Post, Buffalo said: “Trump’s bullying gives us a chance to unite under a Team Canada banner. . . . But truly uniting as Team Canada means truly engaging an Indigenous voice. We need to speak from our rightful seat at the Team Canada table.”
John Desjarlais, executive director of the Indigenous Resource Council, asked in The Globe and Mail: “Why aren’t Indigenous peoples included in Canada’s fresh talk of energy development?”
Desjarlais added: “Ottawa and the provinces and territories need to include Indigenous communities in this new national energy conversation.
“Canada needs national pipelines, and the world needs our LNG. Canada must include First Nation, Métis and Inuit groups if they are to help Canada with its energy security problem in this time of trade conflict.”
The Indigenous Resource Network said the new government should promote Indigenous inclusion, ownership, and equity participation in major projects, and expedite project approvals. “Indigenous people are ready to get Canadian energy and critical minerals moving.”
The Assembly of First Nations (AFN): “A respectful economic partnership is essential to drive mutual prosperity for Canada and First Nations, which starts with making sure First Nations voices are at the table of national discussions.”
Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, national chief of the AFN, told CBC News: “As we see the threats at our borders, we have to have First Nations people at the table. We can’t be left out any more on our own homeland.”
The AFN also issued a list of election priorities: “Federal elections provide an opportunity for First Nations to engage with each federal party to explore options and propose next steps for rebuilding a strong and mutually beneficial relationship between the Crown and First Nations.”
As party leaders made promises on energy issues, though, there were no detailed promises about the role Indigenous Peoples would play in energy after the election.
Mark Carney, prime minister and Liberal leader, spoke of plans to “make Canada the world’s leading energy superpower.” And he made a long list of energy-related promises.
Those included fast-tracking of “projects of national interest,” through a new Major Federal Project Office, which would issue decisions on major projects within two years instead of five. He did not explicitly mention natural gas, LNG, or associated pipelines as among projects to be speeded up, but did say any new pipelines must serve that undefined “national interest.”
Carney said that fast-tracked projects “will be jointly identified with provinces and territories and Indigenous peoples” and that the approval processes would uphold Indigenous rights.
He promised “fundamental and unwavering’ commitment to UNDRIP, and “a fundamental commitment to advance the process of reconciliation.”
(He also promised to double the Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program from $5 to $10 billion and to expand it to support more Indigenous-led infrastructure, transportation and trade projects. “This will make it easier for more Indigenous communities to become owners of major resource projects.”)
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre promised a ‘Canada First’ National Energy Corridor and pledged to fast-track approvals for transmission lines, railways, pipelines, and other “critical infrastructure.” He spoke of reviews taking one year maximum, with a target of six months.
And he said: “First Nations will be involved from the outset, ensuring that economic benefits flow directly to them and that their approval is secured before any money is spent.”
(Poilievre also promised a new mechanism, the First Nations Resource Charge, which, he said, would cede federal tax room “so (Indigenous) communities will no longer need to send all their revenues to Ottawa and then ask for it back.” He said this would make resource projects more attractive to First Nations.)
While promising a “one-stop shop” and fast approvals for resource projects, Poilievre said he would revive the stalled Énergie Saguenay LNG project in Quebec, and would “rapidly approve 10 projects that have been stuck for years in the slow federal approval process. That will include Phase II of LNG Canada.”
That drew a quick response from the BC government: “Energy Minister Adrian Dix said Ottawa has no role left in approving Phase 2 of LNG Canada, because the project received joint federal and provincial environmental permits in 2015.”
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh issued a lengthy platform on Indigenous issues, in which he promised: “We will replace mere consultation with a standard of free, prior and informed consent, including for all decisions affecting constitutionally protected land rights, like energy project reviews.”
And: “We will ensure that Indigenous leadership are at the table and part of any decision-making when it comes to Canada’s trade negotiations with Donald Trump’s administration.”
He said he supports UNDRIP, and “if there’s any development of projects, that has to happen with free, prior and informed consent” of Indigenous nations.
Singh also said he sees an east-west clean electricity corridor as his first priority for expanding the Canadian energy market. While he didn’t shut the door entirely to new pipelines, he said pipeline projects must be accepted by the communities through which they’re routed, must not hurt the environment, must provide good jobs and must meet Indigenous consultation requirements.
While the major parties thus promised roles for Indigenous Peoples in energy approvals and development, and in other economic issues, the promises all lacked detail of exactly what, when, and how.
Now we know who the new government is, and we know that the new Parliament will include a dozen Indigenous MPs.
So now we have to hope that the new government’s promises to Indigenous Peoples are worth more than was suggested by Antonin Scalia, former associate justice of the Supreme Court of the US, who once said:
“Campaign promises are — by long democratic tradition — the least binding form of human commitment.”
(Posted here 30 April 2025)
