Submitted on behalf of…

Submitted on behalf of Windigo First Nations Council:

Windigo First Nations Council’s position on Ontario’s proposal to repeal the Far North Act is contained in the submission documents submitted along with this comment: FINALMAY9FARNORTHSUBMISSIONWFNC.pdf; FINALSIGNEDFarNorthSubmissionLetter.May9. Far North Act Land Use Planning Letter Oct 2018
Please contact us if any of these three documents is missing.

From the cover letter:

Consistent with WCFN and its member communities’ position prior to and since the inception of the Far North Act, we have exercised our jurisdiction in provincial resource and land use decision-making in our territories as early as the 1980s. Once enacted in 2010, we pursued involvement in the Far North Act as a means for maintaining our jurisdiction in our territories and to ensure our decision making authority regarding how and where our lands would be developed would be maintained. These efforts were undertaken as a means to preserve our languages, culture and territorial integrity and to avoid the social, cultural and economic dislocation we have seen among First Nations in other parts of the province. We therefore maintain that a provincial legislated mechanism to enforce joint land use planning between First Nations and the province continues to be appropriate, meaningful and, in this era of reconciliation, a requirement.

Finally, it is our position that if the Far North Act is repealed, efforts and monies spent engaging with and developing First Nation community based land use plans will be wasted. Furthermore, we believe that far greater inefficiencies will result. To begin, Ontario will have to find other means to satisfy the constitutional requirement of meaningful consultation and engagement with First Nations in the development of lands and resources located in their territories. Without the meaningful involvement of First Nations, resource extraction and other development in our territories will not occur.

We trust that we will be formally advised about the results of Ontario’s review as soon as they become available.