Ontario Premier Doug Ford is indicating he could slow down his push on some major infrastructure projects in situations where local First Nations are opposed, but says he’ll move ahead as fast as possible on projects where there is buy-in.
Ford and Canada’s other premiers gathered in Muskoka spent much of Monday afternoon locked in a room with leaders from the Assembly of First Nations, the Métis National Council and the Native Women’s Association of Canada, among other Indigenous groups, discussing national projects.
The result of the meeting, which ran for more than three hours, was a promise to meet again, with the addition of Prime Minister Mark Carney.
It also led to an apparent softening of Ford’s push to massively speed up some projects, at the expense of existing laws and regulations.
“Everyone’s a little different, but the ones that want to be progressive, we’ll move quick, ” Ford said. “The ones that want a little more consultation, that’s fine too. We just want to work together, and everyone wants to prosper.”
The Ontario premier had previously said he wanted to use powers in his recently passed Bill 5 to designate special economic zones, where local laws can be bypassed to speed up certain projects, as “quickly as possible.”
The plan, timeline and legislation were met with backlash from various Ontario First Nations groups, who said it failed to consult them and risked reducing their input in key areas.
On Monday, Ford said he wanted to designate special economic zones in areas where First Nations were on board as early as September. Others, he said, could wait if they chose.
“We have to put a time frame on it,” he told reporters. “Doesn’t matter if it’s six months, a year, whatever. Let’s put a time frame and target that timeframe.”
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The meeting comes as tensions between some governments and a number of First Nations grow.
Last week, a coalition of nine Ontario First Nations lodged a fast-track legal action against the Ford and Carney governments over Bill 5 and Bill C-5, two recent pieces of legislation that give the provincial and federal governments unprecedented power.
Bill 5 is the Ontario version, and Bill C-5 is federal. Both laws include elements that allow cabinet ministers to designate areas or projects as so important that they can bypass environmental and labour laws, regulations and other approvals.
The legal action asks a court to throw out the entirety of Ontario’s Bill 5 and strike out major sections of the federal law. It also threatens injunctions against any projects or areas where the government announces that laws can be bypassed.
Leaving the meeting, National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said — while the two pieces of legislation had been rushed — opinion was “very split” among First Nations over them.
“As the national chief, as you can imagine, it’s tough to say one way or the other,” she said. “There’s lots of legal opinions coming up, First Nations talking to their people, within their communities. And they should have been given that time before the passing of the bill.”
Meeting held alongside COF discussions
The event was held on the edges of the Council of the Federation meetings in Huntsville, Ont. Between Monday and Wednesday, Canada’s premiers and Prime Minister Mark Carney will hold a series of meetings, with the First Nations sit-down on the periphery.
First Nations leaders — who have not been invited to the rest of the event — have asked for a similar meeting to take place and include the prime minister. Premiers indicated they were in favour, although a time has not been set.
Some First Nations leaders who attended were less enthusiastic.
“I was a bit disheartened to be honest because the things that our leadership care about — substantive things like the duty to consult, their right to free and prior informed consent — were not really discussed” Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler said.
Ford and one of his cabinet ministers have both been forced to apologize to First Nations leaders in recent weeks.
The first time came after Ford made comments about First Nations “coming cap in hand,” for which he apologized. Then, his environment minister had to issue an apology after he asked the federal government to stand down clean drinking water legislation.
Ford repeated his offer to work with First Nations on Monday morning, promising prosperity through partnership.
“The door is open for them, they’re welcome to walk through that door and partner with the entire country, partner with Ontario to make their lives more prosperous than they’ve ever seen before,” he said. “That’s going to be their choice. I welcome them to make sure they take advantage of the $3 billion.”
As part of the 2025 budget, the Ford government announced $3.1 billion in loans, grants and scholarships to “support Indigenous participation, partnership and ownership in Ontario’s critical mineral supply chain.”
On Monday, Ford added: “I take care of them, and I want to make sure they prosper.”
— with a file from The Canadian Press
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