Premiers of Alberta, Manitoba spar over need to consult with First Nations

While the premiers of Canada’s western provinces and territories attempted, for the most part, to portray a public image of co-operation and understanding during their meeting in Alberta’s Kananaskis Country this week, there was one major area of disagreement that emerged during their end-of-the-meeting press conference.

When asked about governments’ duty to consult with First Nations on issues that could affect treaty rights, the response by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was challenged as “not correct” by Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew.

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In Alberta, a recent citizens’ petition calling for a referendum on Alberta’s independence was struck down at the courts over the failure of the province and the proponent, Take Back Alberta, to consult with First Nations — a ruling that drew the ire of Smith, who has vowed to appeal.

During Tuesday’s press conference, Smith repeated her criticism, saying, “I think the court erred in judgment, and I think it’s also anti-democratic, the decision that they made.”

“But we’ll make the arguments in court about what the limits to consult ought to be, and we’ll see how that conversation goes,” added Smith.

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“There’s a couple of rounds that we have to go through, obviously, to (the) Court of Appeal, probably also to the Supreme Court of Canada. But we want to make sure that we have a very clear understanding of what the duty to consult really means and what it doesn’t mean, and I think at the moment there’s a lack of clarity on that,” Smith added.

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Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, who is a member of the Ojibways of Onigaming First Nation in northwestern Ontario, quickly responded, saying, “I think we know that that is not correct — a lot of what you just said there, Premier Smith.”

“It is not up to the petition gatherers to fulfil the duty to consult. It is up to you as the Alberta government to fulfil a duty to consult,” Kinew continued.

“In this case, when there is clearly going to be an impact on well-established existing hunting and fishing rights by putting up an international border, if some would have their way, I would agree with the judge’s ruling that that is going to infringe on rights — and so there is a duty to consult.”

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Calling it “not necessarily a disagreement,” Kinew said Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution — which recognizes and affirms Aboriginal and treaty rights in Canada — is a fact and must be respected “the same as the rest of the Constitution.”

In what appeared to be an attempt to extend an olive branch to Smith, Kinew said that “now is the time to work together” and challenged Smith to “hold off on this referendum talk for a year or two and see if we get these pipelines under construction,” referring to Smith’s desire for a new pipeline to the West Coast.

Smith responded to Kinew’s comments by again defending her government’s intention to appeal the earlier court’s ruling.

“And this is why we have the courts, because you can have politicians disagree and that’s why you take it through the court, you take it through the appeals and you go to the Supreme Court and ultimately, though I respect the difference of opinion that Premier Kinew has raised, I think we’ll wait to see how our our Court of Appeals process goes and see what the courts have to say in the end.”

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