Provincial consultations with Indigenous leaders regarding Protect Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act (Bill 5) are being done behind closed doors to ensure “robust dialogues.”
So described Labour, Immigration, Training & Skills Development Minister David Piccini in response to Sudbury.com’s inquiry during a funding announcement in Sudbury on Friday.
As reported by Northern Ontario Business on Thursday, the province is seeking First Nations feedback on the act during sessions in Thunder Bay and Sudbury, with Sudbury’s effort scheduled to take place on Aug. 14. The exact locations are not being announced and sessions are not open to the public.
The sessions will focus on the regulation criteria to establish special economic zones (targeted areas exempt from provincial and municipal laws/regulations) and amendments to the Ontario Heritage Act to exempt certain properties from archaeology requirements under the act.
“The premier wants to be responsive and sit down with Indigenous leaders,” Piccini said.
“We have a commitment to continuing robust and meaningful consultation. I do think, and I think we can all admit, that if everybody’s at the table, that takes away from some of the unique dialogues.
“We’ve had a commitment to meet with different groups at different times to sit down. It’s been an ongoing, open dialogue, to have robust, meaningful consultation.”
The goal, he added, is to “get in a room and hash it out.”
“It’s important that the premier has the ability to engage in targeted discussions with Indigenous leaders in a smaller group setting so that it can be heard,” he said.
Protect Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act (Bill 5) was tabled at Queen’s Park earlier this year.
During a media event in Greater Sudbury in late April, Energy and Mines Minister Stephen Lecce described the effort as cutting red tape to help get mines built faster by slashing redundant bureaucracy.
His and other government officials’ assertion that this would be done without scaling back environmental regulations and duty to consult with First Nations has been heavily contested in the months that followed.
Meanwhile, although two days of public hearings took place in Toronto earlier this year, Northern Ontario was shut out. Sudbury NDP MPP Jamie West tabled a motion to extend the hearings and add days in Northern Ontario, but it was voted down.
“We are disappointed and frustrated at our being excluded from the committee hearing schedule,” Northwatch environmental group representative Brennain Lloyd said at the time, as reported by BayToday.
“Bill 5 is a grab bag of deregulation and rollbacks of environmental and other protections. If enacted, it will have far-reaching environmental and social impacts, particularly in Northern Ontario.”
The legislation is important for Ontario’s economy, Piccini said on Friday.
“The alternative is too grave,” he said.
Referencing International Brotherhood of Boilermakers Local 128 workers who gathered behind him for the day’s announcement regarding skilled trades funding, he added, “Do we want an opportunity for them. It’s an opportunity for more than just workers here, it’s an opportunity for Indigenous nations and the equity partnerships that are before us.”
“Difficult conversations,” including those with Indigenous leadership, need to take place, he said.
“We have to actually get to ‘yes’ and get to building, because the alternative is to fall behind, and nobody wants that.”
In early June, Wahnapitae First Nation Chief Larry Roque drafted an open letter which called on the province to halt passing Bill 5, describing it as an attempt to “override First Nations consultation and the need for free, prior and informed consent.”
Soon after, Bill 5 / Protect Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act received royal assent, functionally unchanged from the version tabled earlier in the year.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
