Canada’s new resource deals drive a climate and rights backslide |
Neskantaga First Nation is a remote northern Ontario community facing mounting development pressure from the Ring of Fire, a mineral-rich region targeted for mining and new road construction. Photo courtesy Neskantaga First Nation/Facebook.
The Government of Canada has recently negotiated agreements with Ontario and Alberta to streamline regulatory processes for ‘critical’ mineral mining and pipeline development. These agreements raise profound concerns about Indigenous rights, democratic governance, and climate responsibilities.
While the agreements are framed as pragmatic responses to investment uncertainty and vehicles for economic stability, their central commitments—to accelerate regulatory pathways for new mines and pipelines—threaten to erode constitutionally protected Indigenous rights and silence communities who have already borne the costs of extractive industries.
Compounding these trends is the federal push to overhaul how major infrastructure and resource projects are approved through legislation like Bill C-5—the One Canadian Economy Act and its Building Canada Act provisions—which aims to designate certain projects as in the “national interest” and expedite them through a new Major Projects Office.
Supporters argue that faster timelines are needed to attract investment and counter external economic pressures. But this fast-track framework concentrates sweeping powers in cabinet, allows projects to proceed with minimal oversight, and risks sidelining meaningful environmental review and robust Indigenous consultation.
On November 27, Canada and Alberta signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU), committing the Government of Canada to work with Alberta to “streamline” regulatory processes for an oil pipeline to the coast of northern British Columbia. It also commits the federal government to “adjust” legislation prohibiting oil tanker traffic on the northern BC coast.
In exchange for these federal obligations to help expand tar sands extraction, Alberta committed to support the construction of a massive carbon capture and storage project, increase the carbon tax on industry, and enrol Indigenous groups as co-owners of the new oil pipeline. The agreement was quickly denounced by First Nation leaders across Canada.
Coastal First Nations responded by reiterating their opposition to tanker traffic in the region. In a media release, Marilyn Slett, president of the Coastal First Nations-Great Bear Initiative said, “we will never allow oil tankers on our coast… this pipeline project will never happen.”
The British Columbia Assembly of First Nations issued a statement denouncing the MOU:
Treaty 8 First Nations similarly rejected the MOU and called for its withdrawal. “We have formally notified the prime minister that any further attempt by Canada, Alberta, or industry to move ahead without us will result in immediate action,” Grand Chief Trevor Mercredi told the press.
The Assembly of First Nations subsequently passed resolutions calling for the MOU to be withdrawn and opposing oil tanker traffic in northern British Columbia.
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