Bill C-39 Committee on Oct. 26th, 2026

[Parm Bains, Liberal, Richmond East—Steveston, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to our guests who have joined us today. Again, thank you for your leadership and stewardship of your traditional territories.

Chief Schilling, thank you for your service. On the Major Projects Office, I'll start with you.

Major projects are often interconnected and interdependent. For example, I know that we talked a bit about the Yukon and northwestern British Columbia transmission infrastructure needed to support critical mineral development and industrial electrification. How do regional assessments support the incorporation of indigenous knowledge across multiple projects?

[Chief Harlan Schilling]

That's just more coming in and dialoguing back and forth. Within the Kaska, we have the Dena Kayeh Institute, which has a lot of information and does research on all of the things within our area.

Again, understanding that the Yukon government hit 96.4%, I believe, of its power grid capacity this last winter, that goes back to my comment that it's not if a project; it's when.

Again, it's about working with the locals on the ground and putting at the forefront the economic specialists we have within these small, local, rural first nation communities in helping with planning and making these projects. Nobody knows the north like the people in the north.

[Parm Bains, Liberal, Richmond East—Steveston, BC]

Further to that, Bill C-39 proposes establishing a Crown consultation hub to deliver one coordinated process per project per indigenous community across departments.

How could that coordination prevent complicated consultation processes and support more effective engagement?

[Chief Harlan Schilling]

Again, the farther north you go, the bigger the landscape gets. There are 204 first nations within British Columbia, and there are 14 in the Yukon, 11 which have settled.

Building and partnerships are key to success in the north. As we have done with the Dene K’éh Kusān, we have reached out to all of our neighbouring first nations, because, again, we can't succeed unless we do it together.

[Parm Bains, Liberal, Richmond East—Steveston, BC]

For Mr. Phillips, how will advancing projects like the north coast transmission line support regional economic development and create opportunities for remote communities through employment and access to cleaner energy?

[Robert Phillips]

Even the announcement today in regard to Red Seal employment skills and training and looking at, again, jobs that have meaning to them...I think we all grew up that way. We all either went to work or went to school. You had to do one or the other. That's what we have to instill in our young people, and they have to get to work.

On a lot of these projects.... I just came from Upper Nicola and Lower Nicola, where they're doing wind turbine projects. There are many projects happening right now in British Columbia in green energy, and we hope that continues. The wind turbine projects have 51% equity with first nations. I think that's really key and important. Let's throw aside this 10% or 15% talk. Let's talk 25% or 50%.

[Parm Bains, Liberal, Richmond East—Steveston, BC]

In your work with the First Nations Summit, are you seeing some success in reaching out to the next generation of skilled workers in those communities?

[Robert Phillips]

I think we definitely have to do more. The fastest-growing population in Canada is first nations. We have a lot of young people. Unfortunately, our death rate has worsened for men and is down to 66 years old. That's probably because of the COVID pandemic and things of that nature.

I believe that you keep people busy, you get them to work and you find the affordability that we all talk about. I think that's a big start to it.

I give the other side of the story, too, in regard to projects. It's very important. A lot of the first nations that have been starting the projects are not the ones going to the forefront and saying, “We're starting projects.” They're the ones at the table and negotiating agreements.

[Parm Bains, Liberal, Richmond East—Steveston, BC]

Absolutely.

Did you want to add something?

[Chief Harlan Schilling]

It just starts, again, with the relationship and building it up. I'm very proud to say that we're at six years of zero unemployment in my community because of true partnerships with the British Columbia government.

Again, it is the next generation that we have to work on. I probably have six younger brothers. I could probably give two of them a job and say, “Your job is to lay right there,” and they will stand up to quit. It does take time to work at them.

Communities know the north. That's the work. Getting down to the root of a partnership and knowing exactly who our people are and how they work are what success is in Lower Post. Working with Robert Phillips here, that's what we do with the centre of excellence. We try to build those relationships with government and industry to make sure it is done right, and it's done right by the people who know it best.

[Parm Bains, Liberal, Richmond East—Steveston, BC]

Thank you so much.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Go ahead, Monsieur Ste-Marie.

[Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bloc, Joliette—Manawan, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good evening, gentlemen. Thank you very much for joining us. It's important to hear first nations voices on Bill C‑39. You are the first panel this evening where first nations are represented and heard. I hope your comments will be taken into account.

My questions will be for Chief Benedict.

I would have liked to have representatives here from the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador, but I understand it wasn't possible given the short delays, the new government in Quebec City, the connections needed, and all that. What they have told me, though, Chief Benedict, is that your organization and theirs share the same position on Bill C‑39, and that's why I will direct my questions to you.

First, I would like to hear your thoughts on the one-year assessment limit for each national interest project, based on the “one consultation, one year” principle. What are your concerns about first nations' rights and the Crown's duties when it comes to holding consultations and finding agreements? What is your reaction to what's in Bill C‑39 on the matter?

[Regional Chief Abram Benedict]

I can't speak directly to the position of Quebec, but what I can say is that we work very closely with them. I'm a member of the national executive through the Assembly of First Nations. Also, being the neighbouring region to Quebec, we obviously communicate very much on this. Regional Chief Verreault-Paul and I have had a direct communication about this, and our positions are quite aligned on it, in that we have the same concerns that I put into my submission earlier about Bill C-39. Hopefully, there's an opportunity for him and other Quebec nations to make presentations to this committee.

In relation to the other part of your question, I apologize. You'll have to repeat it.

[Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bloc, Joliette—Manawan, QC]

What is your critique of Bill C‑39 with respect to the one-year deadline for assessments of major projects? What risks does this pose to the Crown's duty?

[Regional Chief Abram Benedict]

On the one-year timeline, I spend a lot of time talking about consultation in the work that I do as the regional chief in supporting my nations, as well as in committees like this or with proponents or stakeholders. Consultation is determined by the communities themselves, based on the assessment by the nations themselves on the impact to their aboriginal treaty rights. There can be processes that are longer or shorter than others, and that is purely determined by the nation.

Some communities go into ceremony. Other communities go into robust processes. Some communities do smaller processes. It's all based on the community's consultation protocols and the impact to the land. The one-year time frame for large projects that has been talked about to protect and build the nation's economy is not enough for most of our communities that will be affected by large projects.

[Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bloc, Joliette—Manawan, QC]

Mr. Schilling, do you want to add anything?

[Chief Harlan Schilling]

One thing that I noted in my presentation is that this bill does not correctly reflect the north. We do have very short timelines. For six months, it's winter. To do a proper assessment of how this is going to affect everything.... We're not the same as the south. You cannot get a true image of how it's going to affect something when it's under 10 feet of snow.

Again, the timeline in this bill does not reflect the true realities of the environment that we live with in northern Canada.

[Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bloc, Joliette—Manawan, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Schilling.

Chief Benedict, Bill C‑5 talked about projects of national interest. Now we have the regions of national interest. Do you have any comments on that? Could it limit the first nations' ability to intervene in a particular project or to negotiate?

I would like to hear your thoughts on that.

[Regional Chief Abram Benedict]

Absolutely. Thank you for that.

As the Ontario regional chief, I represent 133 first nations. To go back to my comments earlier about consultation, my region is very diverse. There are the northern communities—which Chief Schilling has talked about. There are communities that are central, and there are southern communities. The consultation is different all across the region. People ask me, “How can I consult nationally? How can I consult regionally?” Regional approaches for consultation are very different.

When we talk about the regional assessments, there definitely can be geographical regions that have several consultation processes within themselves. I would point to a project that's ongoing, the deep repository that's being proposed for northern Ontario. Although the communities directly impacted have gone through a process, many of my other nations who are signatories to the treaty in that area have not been consulted on that. If you were to designate a regional area for impact, it does not take into consideration the treaty obligations and the territorial impacts that many of our nations are a part of.

[Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bloc, Joliette—Manawan, QC]

I'll move on very quickly.

Let's talk about the fact that the government would allow projects to begin before the assessment has been done. You have a few seconds left, if you want to comment on that.

[Regional Chief Abram Benedict]

That is, obviously, a risk being taken. There's a lot of uncertainty around this, and part of our messaging has been very clear around this: It's building relationships, building trust. When we have proponents...or preliminary approvals happening, it creates a lot of uncertainty for our nations. That does not uphold the principles of free, prior and informed consent, everything that's in UNDRIP and everything about the treaty relationship, which is a historic relationship between our first nations and the Government of Canada. This is not a good step.

[Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bloc, Joliette—Manawan, QC]

Thank you, meegwetch.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Thank you.

We have Mr. Albas for five minutes.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to our witnesses for being here and for sharing how this legislation affects your communities and what you believe needs to happen.

I'd like to speak a bit about the Building Canada Act changes in Bill C-39 as well as to follow up on my colleague's questions, in particular on the “regions of national interest” designation.

The regions of national interest designation would still require a preliminary Impact Assessment Act review, essentially, community by community. If, let's say, it's the Ring of Fire—in the case of Chief Benedict in Ontario—it's well known that there are lots of first nations there. There's lots of interest in that region. There would be community by community initial assessments, but essentially what would happen is that once this becomes designated as a region of national interest, the minister can materially change what was originally consulted on, which essentially changes the final parameters before cabinet decides to schedule it, and then designate it on schedule 1, allowing those exemptions to take effect.

Is this a concern for you, Chief Benedict? Maybe we'll start with you.