Major Projects Office CEO hears B.C. First Nations’ frustration over lack of consultation

Major Projects Office CEO Dawn Farrell told First Nations in B.C. on Wednesday that their frustration over consultation on the Pacific Link pipeline made her feel as though Canada was “never going to work,” but said her office is determined to do better. Farrell spoke at the B.C. Assembly of First Nations’ annual general meeting in Vancouver. Media were asked to leave before her appearance, though the meeting continued to stream publicly on the assembly’s YouTube channel.

First Nations in B.C. are calling on Ottawa to establish national standards for Indigenous consultation on major projects. They say they had just 11 working days to review and engage on whether the proposed Pacific Link pipeline should be designated a project of national interest. The standard, they say, should include “minimum procedural protections,” including protected consultation timelines before decisions are made.

The proposed pipeline would run from Alberta to B.C. Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith designated it a project in the national interest on Oct. 1. The designation does not remove the government’s obligation to consult First Nations on the project’s impacts. The goal is to complete the required reviews and consultations over the next year so construction can begin next September.

Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Chief Rosanne Casimir, who presented the call for a national consultation standard, said the process expects First Nations to review thousands of documents on tight timelines and with limited funding. Referring to Farrell’s story about keeping two binders totalling 1,200 pages on her coffee table, Casimir said: “Even in your presentation initially starting off, you shared that there was excessive amounts of papers and documents. Well, we’re receiving that after the fact.”

“Meaningful consultation is difficult when nations, communities, are still trying to understand the project while decisions are continuing to move forward,” Casimir said. “For the (Pacific Link) oil pipeline, we raised process concerns, and Canada took nearly a month to respond and only 11 working days remained for the review and engagement.”

Farrell said she agrees with the concept of national consultation standards, but questioned how they would work alongside the government’s accelerated project-approval timelines. She said she hears First Nations’ pleas and discussions, as well as disbelief that change will come and cynicism. “And I feel like, ‘Oh my God, we can never get this country to work. Like it’s never going to work. We’ll never make it,’” she said.

Farrell said staff in her office have “very, very big scars” from working on projects such as the Trans Mountain pipeline, which she said did not have the depth of Indigenous consultation that the Pacific Link pipeline has had “after two months.” She said everyone in her office is committed to doing better, but it is difficult to lay out what the work looks like, and First Nations will not believe them. “No amount of presentation that I’m going to give … is going to give you a sense of what we’re trying to accomplish. The only thing that will give you that sense of it is if we actually do, in action, get to a different place.”

Farrell said her office is working hard to address the concerns raised at the meeting. She understands First Nations will not believe the office until it delivers, she said, so staff will spend most of their time delivering. Perhaps, when they return next year, they will have examples of their efforts, she added.

The federal government initially planned one month of consultation on whether to designate the pipeline a project in the national interest under the Building Canada Act. The period was extended to two months after Indigenous leaders raised concerns about the tight timeline. A federal summary of the consultations posted online says Indigenous groups criticized the lack of project information, which they said prevented them from fully assessing its impacts.

Farrell acknowledged on Wednesday that adequate consultation is key to a project’s success. The projects her office delivers must respect First Nations’ rights and follow their processes, she said. “We can’t just make stuff up. The courts will just come and overturn the projects and we’ll be like Canada’s always been, 10, 15 years, dragging stuff around in the ditch and not getting it done and wasting time and money and resources, and your time and your people’s resources. We can’t keep doing that.”

Farrell faced criticism at the meeting over the federal government’s push to move quickly on major-project approvals. “Our concern is not efficiency itself. It’s whether the speed and certainty for proponents are being advanced equivalent protection for Aboriginal title and rights, our governance and the lands and waters that sustain our people,” said Shana Thomas, hereditary chief of the Lyackson First Nation. She said consultation is something governments do, and First Nations must be partners in decision-making. Their input cannot simply be evaluated by the government after the fact, she said; they must participate as equal partners.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak has said staff at the Major Projects Office do not understand how to work with First Nations communities and that “junior staffers” are not helping build relationships. She has also said Farrell has been unavailable to meet with leaders, including at Assembly of First Nations gatherings. At Wednesday’s closed-door meeting, Farrell said the only way she knows how to do her work is “to not talk very much.” She said she cannot be put on planes to travel because she feels a huge responsibility to ensure the projects her office works on meet the standards discussed by First Nations.

In an emailed statement last week, the Privy Council Office said the Major Projects Office works closely with Indigenous communities and senior officials make themselves available to meet with communities when asked.

First Nations in B.C. also passed a resolution at Wednesday’s meeting calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to halt the advance of the Building Canada Act and repeal Bill C-39 if it passes through Parliament. The legislation would fast-track approvals for major projects, shorten their reviews and create “national interest” zones to pre-approve certain types of projects.

First Nations chiefs have warned that the government risks ending up in court if it approves and builds projects without their free, prior and informed consent, as set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Chiefs are expected to meet Carney and the country’s premiers in Ottawa later this month, with major projects expected to be a major topic of discussion.