Many Indigenous leaders have expressed disappointment that only the leaders of the national organizations representing Inuit, Métis and First Nations were allowed to fully participate in the talks at a climate strategy meeting with the prime minister and premiers earlier this month. Other Indigenous leaders in attendance for the meeting in Vancouver were relegated to the role of spectators.   “Limiting conversation to three Indigenous voices from over 600 Indigenous communities across Canada is a vast under representation,” Melina Laboucan-Massimo, a climate and indigenous rights activist, said. “At a bare minimum, the regional chiefs should be at the table as well, but also Indigenous leaders and experts who work on climate should be as well.”   Regional chiefs were also frustrated that their input into the pan-Canadian framework for clean growth and climate change is limited, despite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s promise of a “renewed, nation-to-nation relationship” with Indigenous people in Canada.   “We thought we’d have a chance to speak, but it was the national chief who was permitted to speak for about ten minutes. Ten minutes for all First Nations in Canada? That is a slap in the face to First Nations and embarrassment for Canada,” Ontario Regional Chief Isadore Day told DeSmog Canada. “Climate change is a matter of life and death. Our kids and grandkids will suffer if we fail to act and we only have a 20-year window to act. Clearly, we all need to work together.”

Treaty 6 Grand Chief Tony Alexis, an Alberta regional chief, said First Nations had been merely “asked to come and visit” the climate meeting. Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Fort Chipewyan First Nation in Alberta declared the federal government and premiers had “failed terribly” in addressing Indigenous concerns about climate change and protecting the environment.

“We Were Not Welcome At The Table": Chief Day   Two days of meetings took place in Vancouver: a meeting on March 2nd for Indigenous leaders, premiers and the prime minister and a meeting the following day exclusively for the provinces, territories and the federal government. Last-minute invitations to join the Alberta and Ontario provincial delegations allowed Day and Alexis to be present at the final meeting.   “We were not welcome at the table. If the meeting is an indication of how things will proceed moving forward, Indigenous peoples and Canadians should be concerned,” Day said.   Not all provinces appear comfortable with Indigenous leaders playing a significant role in the crafting of a Canadian climate framework either.   “From what I heard some provinces indicated during the meeting they would like to limit Indigenous involvement in the climate framework. I find this very concerning, not to mention deeply disrespectful,” Laboucan-Massimo told DeSmog Canada. “It is of immense importance for Indigenous governments to be engaged from start to finish at the four climate tables, and I hope that all levels of government respect that.”   Before the summit in Vancouver had begun, the federal government came under fire for failing to invite two other national Indigenous organizations — Native Women’s Association of Canada and the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples — to the talks. NDP Leader Tom Mulcair blasted Trudeau in Parliament for the “slight” and Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger pointed out in the past all five national organizations have been invited to attend first ministers meetings.   Indigenous Peoples To Be Consulted On The Climate Change Framework   A “broader engagement process with Indigenous peoples” is meant to take place alongside the work of four federal-provincial working groups studying key climate policy areas such as clean technology, carbon pricing mechanisms and greenhouse gas reductions strategies. If the recommendations are approved at a first ministers meeting this fall, they will make up the bulwark of a national framework shaping Canada’s responses to climate change.   The details of the consultation process have not been made available yet, but both Day and Laboucan-Massimo agree the process needs to be as comprehensive as possible for Indigenous concerns to be heard and incorporated.   "I think a climate change accord in Canada is necessary going forward. It would spell out how a constructive dialogue between Indigenous people and the federal government could take place," Day said.   Indigenous knowledge could also strengthen a national plan to address climate change. Scientists have already begun using Inuit knowledge and observations for studying weather patterns in the Arctic. Firsthand information like this can be used to test climate models.   “Because of the innate connection to the land, Indigenous people notice changes in the ecosystem, animals and water that others may dismiss. We’ve had centuries of observation, experience and intimate relationships to the land that has built this unique knowledge and sensitivity,” Laboucan-Massimo told DeSmog Canada. Laboucan-Massimo is a member of the Sakaw Nehiyawak (“Northern” or “Bush” Cree in English).   Laboucan-Massimo also sees the low-carbon economy as much more in line with Indigenous worldviews than fossil fuels economies.

“For the first time since the age of industrialization, there finally exists a technology that produces energy that is not in complete contradiction with Indigenous values and our way of life,” Laboucan-Massimo said. “The time is now for our communities to begin integrating renewable energy technology such as solar photovoltaic to help us become less reliant on fossil fuels.” 

Image: Melina Laboucan Massimo at a solar installation in her community of Little Buffalo in northern Alberta.

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“Canada stands at the threshold of building our clean growth economy,” the opening line of Canada’s new declaration on clean growth and climate change states. The declaration was endorsed by the prime minister and premiers in Vancouver Thursday.   “We will grow our economy while reducing emissions. We will capitalize on the opportunity of a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy to create good-paying and long-term jobs. We will do this in partnership with Indigenous peoples based on recognition of rights, respect and cooperation,” the Vancouver Declaration continues.      The document itself is not a national climate plan, but rather lays the foundation for one to be finalized in the fall. The document represents a major change in the political tide for Canada, with the federal government, provinces and territories working together to reduce Canada’s production of global warming greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.   “Politicians coming together and talking about this is a great step for Canada,” Dave Sawyer, a leading environmental economist in Canada, told DeSmog Canada. “It is very positive that first ministers are setting up a process to align provincial climate policies and look to fill holes in policies across the country.”

Provincial Climate Policies Hold the Details

Canadians looking for meaningful climate action from the federal government since the signing of the Kyoto Protocol ­— the world’s first climate treaty — in 1997, may be disappointed the Vancouver Declaration lacks specifics.   The six-point document contains no renewable energy targets, sector specific regulations on GHG emissions, or any mention of Canada’s number one contributor to climate change: the oil and gas sector. The sole national target mentioned in the document is a commitment to meet or exceed Canada’s 2030 target of 30 per cent cuts in emissions levels compared to 2005 levels — a target established under the previous federal government that has been criticized as weak.   Sawyer argues many of the details missing in the Vancouver Declaration are actually contained in existing and emerging provincial climate policies and regulations.   “In the past, we have had this tendency of pledging to ambitious targets and then backsliding from there,” Sawyer said. “Over the last ten years of federal policy inaction, we have had a fair amount of provincial policy put in place to drive down emissions.”   In late 2015, Alberta released plans to cap oilsands emissions and phase out coal-fired electrical generation and Saskatchewan adopted  a 50 per cent renewable energy target for 2030. Ontario and Manitoba announced last year they would adopt cap and trade carbon pricing systems.   Building on the success of provincial and territorial policies is a cornerstone of the Vancouver Declaration which recognizes “the commitment of the federal government to work with the provinces and territories in order to complement and support their actions without duplicating them, including by promoting innovation and enabling clean growth across all sectors.”   "What is different this time around is we have a credible federal back stop," Sawyer, who is the CEO of the consultancy EnviroEconomics, told DeSmog. "A subtle reminder to the provinces and territories that if they don't find a way to drive down their emissions the federal government will find a way for them."

Carbon Pricing 'Mechanisms' to be Used 

Pricing carbon pollution emerged as a source of contention in advance of the First Ministers' Meeting. Prior to the Vancouver event, the premiers of Saskatchewan, Yukon, and Manitoba made it clear they would not support Ottawa imposing a national minimum carbon price on the provinces and territories.   During his election campaign Trudeau promised to implement a national price on carbon and indicated a carbon price was an intended outcome of the Vancouver meeting.   “I was happy to see the Prime Minister move away from an exclusive focus on carbon pricing. Carbon pricing alone won't get you there,” Sawyer said from Ottawa. “You need regulations, technology innovation, and other measures as well as carbon pricing to transition cost-effectively to a low carbon economy."   A compromise was found in the end. The Vancouver Declaration commits the premiers to “adopting a broad range of domestic measures, including carbon pricing mechanisms” but not an actual per tonne price of GHG emissions found in cap and trade or carbon tax systems.   What those mechanisms may include has yet to be defined. Any policy measure driving up the costs of burning fossil fuels for energy could be conceived as an aspect of carbon pricing. During the meeting, Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil floated the idea that the high rates Nova Scotians pay on electricity fulfills a similar function as a price on carbon.

Working Groups To Study Climate Plan Over Next Six Months 

The Vancouver Declaration also created four federal-provincial working groups that will refine recommendations on the pillars of an eventual pan-Canadian clean growth and climate change framework. Over the next six months the working groups will study clean technology solutions, carbon pricing mechanisms, GHG reductions “opportunities,” and adaptation and climate resilience.   The declaration requires the working groups to “engage Indigenous peoples in the development of the pan-Canadian framework on clean growth and climate change," adding the work of the declaration should be "complemented by a broader engagement process with Indigenous peoples.”   National Chief Perry Bellegarde of the Assembly of First Nations urged Canada to move quickly toward consultation with indigenous peoples.   “We are the first ones to feel the impacts of climate change and we know this crisis is real and it is upon us. Working together we can succeed but we have to start working now,” Bellegarde said in a statement.   Recommendations from the working groups will be submitted to the premiers and the federal government who will then finalize the Canadian climate framework in October. In the meantime, the federal government has committed to funding green infrastructure, public transportation and energy efficiency in social infrastructure to kick start and support low-carbon initiatives across the country.

Image Credit: Screenshot CBCNews.ca

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