Good afternoon, everybody. I certainly appreciate and thank you for this opportunity to speak on this review. I won't go into too much detail, as we have a number of comments to make.
The Walpole Island First Nation supports the intent behind the federal Species at Risk Act, to protect and conserve wildlife species. However, Walpole Island First Nation does not consider the single species focused approach taken by SARA will save species at risk. Walpole Island First Nation takes a more holistic approach that focuses on biodiversity and maintaining human ties to the land. Thus far, SARA has fallen terribly short in meeting the majority of its objectives.
Issues with SARA.
Cost: the recovery planning process has been carried out in an inefficient and ineffective manner. The only success stories to date appear to be those in which species have been found to have not been at risk in the first place. Walpole Island First Nation agrees with the intent of the convention on biodiversity. However, saying that a single species approach, as SARA does, fulfills the objectives of the convention is quite a stretch.
SARA has been in place since 2003, yet seven years later SARA-responsible authorities have neglected to develop the policies, procedures, and legal instruments necessary for implementing and upholding the act, especially where critical habitat designation and protection are concerned.
SARA-responsible authorities continually use a type of risk management approach that has them doing as little as they have to in order to uphold the honour of the crown when consulting with us. First nations should not have to take the crown to court to make it meet its duty to consult us properly. Tokenism on the part of SARA-responsible authorities when consulting with first nations must end. In what is supposed to be a time of reconciliation between Canada and aboriginal peoples, the inequitable burdens that SARA has placed on aboriginal communities have undermined that spirit at almost every turn.
The failure of the government to work in good faith with aboriginal peoples on the conservation of biodiversity, coupled with the failure to uphold the duty to consult stemming from section 35 of the Constitution Act, will ultimately lead to a major breakdown of relationships, Caledonia-type standoffs, and additional losses against the Canadian government filed by and on behalf of aboriginal nations.
NACOSAR is underresourced, ineffective, and inaccessible to aboriginal peoples. The little bit of funding that was designated for NACOSAR was not received. It lacks any staff or legal counsel. It is not effective as a serious mechanism for providing first nations input. The original concept for NACOSAR, before it got watered down when SARA was first enacted, should be revisited. That concept would have seen six aboriginal leaders forming a council with three federal ministers of the crown to provide advice to the Canadian Endangered Species Conservation Council.
Even though attempts have been made to carry out the section 35 Constitution Act duty to consult, resources for being consulted on a level playing field are rarely, if ever, taken into consideration. Attempts to identify critical habitat on privately held lands have elicited the destruction of would-be critical habitat, resulting in the destruction of species habitats with no legal recourse. Repeated attempts by Walpole Island First Nation to move forward with section 11, 12, and 13 agreements under SARA to support recovery and conservation actions have failed as a result of unwillingness and lack of cooperation by Environment Canada, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and Parks Canada.
Walpole Island First Nation's resentment about SARA: first nations are the only communities affected. Critical habitat designation is equal to a land grab if done without first nations consent. Critical habitat orders on reserve lands under section 58 should require first nations consent. On the lack of certainty and clarity on compensation, there is a lack of certainty about whether holders of certificates of possession under subsection 20(2) of the Indian Act and the first nations as a whole are included within the scope of section 64 of SARA. Also, if our traditional territory outside of our reserve, which includes our aboriginal title claim area, is affected by critical habitat orders, we have seen nothing to say that compensation would be awarded to us for those effects. Compensation should be awarded for these kinds of serious impacts on our rights and our claims.
On the growing population and housing shortage on Walpole Island First Nation and no accommodation for or consideration of this, the consultation requirements in SARA have led to nothing more than tokenism when our first nation has been consulted. When we provided input into the development of a recovery strategy, our input was not responded to in any detail and our input was not reflected in the strategy. There is little respect for what first nations communities are doing with respect to conservation.
Aboriginal peoples have different ways of caring for the land versus SARA's approach. For example, in Walpole Island First Nation, the land is us. Land is sacred, a sacred responsibility. We have different lists of species from SARA . We would include sweetgrass or other important plants in decline. We wouldn't prioritize species as in SARA. All are equally important. A holistic approach is necessary, rather than SARA's individual species approach.
Walpole Island First Nation has different ways of working with people to care for the land versus SARA's approach; community-based conservation, use of and involvement with the land is critical. “Out of sight, out of mind” equals the biggest threat to habitat. We need to save the land and people at the same time. Each nation has its own approach to caring for the land. One solution doesn't fit all.
Walpole Island First Nation is doing something right. The first nation is an oasis of green with over 60 species at risk, compared to surrounding regions and non-native communities. Walpole Island First Nation equals good conservation. The proof is in the pudding: our first nation is home to some of the most diverse habitats remaining in Canada, including tallgrass prairie and oak savanna habitats, deemed globally imperilled due to habitat losses elsewhere; one of the largest contiguous tracts of woodlands and forests in southern Ontario; and one of the largest coastal wetlands systems in the Great Lakes basin and rich coastal waters.
Beyond SARA, Walpole Island First Nation wants to co-lead in its traditional territory with the federal crown on conservation and recovery planning and implementation, focusing on biodiversity. To achieve this objective, at least in part, SARA should be amended at least so that recovery strategies and action plans as well as critical habitat orders on reserve lands would require first nations consent. Walpole Island First Nation wants to govern species at risk work on the first nations land base and to lead in policy and strategies throughout our traditional territories.
Walpole Island First Nation wants to share with others values and knowledge so that species can survive and thrive.
Original Anishnaabeg teachings and principles will lead to healthy land, people, and values in the future for the benefit of everyone.
Walpole Island First Nation wants what is shared to be honoured and treated with respect.
Meegwetch.