Carney's First Huge Failure
Summit on resource development went disastrously for the Liberal government this week. Will it move the dial?
This week the Liberal government held a two day summit to discuss partnerships with the Indigenous peoples of Canada from many different places. Chiefs and leaders from all over the country were invited to come to the summit in Gatineau in order to discuss the new bill C-5 and the implications that it hold within it.
It went terribly for Carney and his cabinet.
Bill C‑5, also known as the “One Canadian Economy Act”—simultaneously enacts the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act (which recognizes equivalent provincial standards so goods, services and workers certified in one province automatically meet comparable federal requirements) and the Building Canada Act, which lets Cabinet declare projects “in the national interest” and subject them to a streamlined, two‑year approval process—together dismantling interprovincial trade barriers, boosting labour mobility and fast‑tracking nation‑building infrastructure.
Bill C-5, along with Bill 5 in Ontario, is a bill that was rushed through Parliament in an unprecedented way. It was pushed through during mass protests by First Nations groups on Parliament hill, and is now facing several more challenges from First Nations. First Nations groups have called Bill 5 and Bill C-5 a “clear and present danger” and nine groups have demanded and injunction against the bills.
At this week’s Summit, the meeting ended in walk‑outs and a constitutional lawsuit. The Carney government discovered that three marquee statutes passed under Justin Trudeau now form a legal mine‑field around its new “national‑interest” building agenda. Bill 69, which the conservatives have called an “anti pipeline bill,” raises requirements for large resource development projects and obliges Ottawa to run full, participatory environmental reviews whenever federal lands, species‑at‑risk or Indigenous rights are touched; even Bill C‑5’s new two‑year “Building Canada” timeline cannot short‑circuit those mandatory triggers, so key projects still face the same open‑ended hearings, court‑proofing and potential injunctions that industry has railed against for years.
Second, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (UNDRIP) made it a part of federal law that indigenous peoples must have “free, prior, and informed consent.” Christopher Curtis and I wrote an article about this around Nuclear waste. It requires that all future laws align with UNDRIP and gives First Nations a type of veto power.
Essentially, without the consent of Indigenous groups, there will be no resource development.
This is important, because the game has now changed. Yesterday, Mohawk Council of Kahnawake Grand Chief Cody Diabo walked out of the summit and was quoted by the Canadian Press saying ““I don’t even know what this is, but this is not engagement. This is definitely not consultation. I’m speechless.”
Yesterday, Indigenous minister Gull-Masty was asked what the government would do if First Nations groups said “no” to a project, not giving their consent. Her reply was lacking, and she repeated several times that they will focus on projects that have more consensus. She did not rule out that the government would force through projects against the will of First Nations.
Assembly of First Nations Chief Woodhouse Nepinak said “First Nation consent for major projects is not optional.”
Kehewin Cree Nation Chief Vernon Watchmaker called this “is not modernization, it is colonization in 2025.” All of these were talked about yesterday on the Power & Politics show with David Cochrane.
I reached out to several contacts who were there, who did not agree to have their names used on the record. I was told that the summit was disorganized, scripted and controlled and that it was a “shit show.” My contacts in several First Nations groups did not think that the organization or format had any viable path forward.
Not only that, but the media who were invited to the summit were left outside, and disallowed within the summit. They were not allowed in to fill their water bottles, or use the washroom, until the thunderstorms started, minimizing the ability to cover the event and reporting the facts to the public.
It seems that the First Nations groups are also disappointed that the Prime Minister did not follow protocol by approaching them and building relationships with them first. Instead, he summoned them to Ottawa and is trying to force through what they want and not building long term relationships. This will not bode well for them in the future.
I will keep you updated as more comes from this, but the fallout is not looking good. It seems that this may have been a large miscalculation from Carney. However, it is unlikely to drop him in the polls, considering most indigenous rights issues do not move the dial for the general Canadian public, and the media has mostly moved on already. With that in mind, it is unlikely to cause long term repercussions to Carney’s honeymoon period with the Canadian public.