Environment Committee on Oct. 18th, 2016

[Geoffrey Quaile, Senior Environment Advisor, Cree Nation Government, Grand Council of the Crees (Eeyou Istchee)]

Yes, if you're referring to the Innu guardians program.

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Yes.

[Geoffrey Quaile]

That's what I thought.

What Chantal was using is just a term. It's not an active program. The Cree land managers, or tallymen, which is actually what the Crees go by, is more of a cultural tradition that's grown from hundreds of years of appointing somebody. It's not like an institutional thing created in modern time. It's just how the Crees have deployed themselves to use the land over time.

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

It's very similar to what has happened with the Watchmen or the Canadian Rangers and the guardians among the Inuit. As far as establishing this type of program to be the watchmen of the lands is concerned, to be the protectors of the lands, the monitors of the lands, do you think it's possible for development to occur if it is co-managed and monitored under a program like what the Haida have established with the Watchmen or the Northwest Territories with the Rangers?

[Chantal Otter Tétreault]

We have something called the Cree Trappers Association. This is where each tallyman is registered, in a sense, and is provided income to live on the land, but in terms of being within a protected area we haven't really established that yet. We haven't had a real management that's been set up for protected areas.

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

That's what I'm asking. Is that something you would see? If you had the ability to co-manage and to monitor, would that be an ideal scenario to you from a developmental standpoint of establishing what happens on your lands?

I'm asking both the Moose Cree and you.

[Chantal Otter Tétreault]

There is a park that's being created. It's called the Assinica park, which is near Mistissini. It's actually part of Mistissini. It will be co-managed with Quebec and with the community of Oujé-Bougoumou. With that, they will be incorporating the actual tallymen whose traplines or hunting territories are found within this protected area within this national park, and they will have a role there in terms of keeping an eye on the territory when there is tourism happening or any type of illegal activities in terms of illegal hunting. There will be—

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Do you see that, though, as integral to establishing that kind of agreement on protected lands?

I apologize. I cut you off.

[Chantal Otter Tétreault]

I think it's a plus for sure, but there are areas, as I mentioned before, such as the biodiversity reserve, where there's no funding put in to have any type of management for those areas. It's definitely something that we'd enjoy having in terms of having to be more involved in how to manage our protected area.

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Go ahead, Jack.

[Jack Rickard]

In the opening comments that the chief brought forth in regard to the Lower Mattagami extension project, we engaged our elders. We needed that expertise from the land users, or that perspective, with regard to moving forward with initiatives that would benefit the first nation economically. The one thing that was emphasized was that the two had to balance each other. There would be no new impacts happening to the land with the structure as it is right now.

We've always engaged our elders to seek that direction in regard to any proposed activity happening out on the land. Our elders are our knowledge holders of what transpired in the past. We look to the youth as well to ensure that they also have a voice, because we have to look at the future too.

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Finally, then, what do you see as the roadblocks to reaching agreements on these protected lands with the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec and the federal government?

[Jack Rickard]

I think it has to go back to the protection of the animals. A majority of our people still are out on the land carrying out our annual pursuits in gathering our food, medicine, and water. Any development that may have an impact on that would be frowned upon, I believe, by our elders.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

You have two seconds, Chief Faries. Go ahead.

[Chief Patricia Faries]

Very quickly, I think it's the legislation. It's a fundamental problem, obviously, that Ontario's legislation is designed to continuously stake and continuously erode. That's my answer. Sorry, but I had to say that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

That was good for clarification. This is what we're looking for, so this is important.

Next up is Mr. Eglinski.

[Jim Eglinski, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

Thank you.

I'd like to thank all of the witnesses who are here tonight. I was very interested to learn a little about your culture as you were speaking.

I have spent most of my working career with aboriginal communities in northern British Columbia and the Northwest Territories. You mentioned going back on the land, and I remember when the Dene from Liard decided to move out of the community every summer. When I'd go to visit them, I'd have to extend my visit by about 65 miles to visit different people because they were scattered every few miles. It was so rewarding to talk to the elders and learn from them.

There were a couple of points that you folks brought up. I think the first one was from Patricia Faries.

You were talking about building a Cree conservation program. I am wondering if you could elaborate on that a bit and tell me what you envision you can do in this protected area. After you finish that, I have a second question.

[Chief Patricia Faries]

Yes, I think it's a concept that's not new to us, that we conserve, because we've always had that in our systems and in our culture, and in the way we've used the land. The occupancy and historical use has always been done with a conservation approach. We've always made sure that there was game left, that fish were allowed to reproduce, and that we moved around the territory.

My uncle, Eddie Trapper, who has passed now, he was a trapper his entire life—from my grandfather—and he used to think about his traditional territory as “rooms”—that's what he called it—that he would have to move around from each winter, and every four years, he would come back to a specific room. Those are ingrained in our systems. Those are ingrained in our hunters and trappers and families who use the land. I think that has to be acknowledged. That has to be recognized when we talk about protected areas. We already are doing it. I think it's more of an awareness and a communication and a network between our peoples.

[Jim Eglinski, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

I've not heard this perspective of “rooms”, but I've heard of protecting the areas and moving from one area to the other. It shows that the land can be protected but can also be used at the same time.

Going from there, I noticed when you spoke—both groups—you talked about a robust, diverse economy for the future. One area there is approximately 66,000 square kilometres, which is a little smaller than my riding, but it's pretty close, so I know exactly what you're looking at in terms of distance.

When you were talking about the 450,000 square kilometres, what type of economy drivers do you see there for the future? That means some type of industry participating with you and you looking after the land. I think you both said that you see a need for industry to keep the economy going. I wonder if you can give me a vision of where you see that.

[Geoffrey Quaile]

What Chantal's presentation was trying to balance a little towards the end is the recognition that there need to be opportunities as well. You can't protect everything, even though that would probably be the best for everybody, but we can't live that way.

Some of those opportunities right now are that the Cree Nation Government has entered into several impact and benefit agreements with mines, which are currently starting or have been under way for some time and provide jobs and further economic growth for the communities in the areas that are affected. Crees have been able to utilize some of the benefits of hydro development in northern Quebec to their benefit to create better communities. You mentioned the growth of Mistissini. Part of that is largely from the benefits that have been derived from hydroelectric development.

It's a diverse culture, so it's like anywhere where there are people who have different ideas of how the future would look. Some Crees see the coasts in the north as a possibility for shipping ports. If we unfortunately have continued global change and the passages are open for a longer period of time, it's actually closer to ship goods to Europe, or even across to Asia, through the north. If that's the scenario, some Crees see opening deepwater ports, as an example.

[Jim Eglinski, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

How much time do I have?

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

You have a minute and a half.

[Jim Eglinski, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

I'm curious. It's quite a large area that you're talking about. I imagine there are a number of communities involved in this. How do you resolve the differences of opinions? As you were saying, somebody might be looking at a deep-sea port, but another person may say they want to protect that coastal water. Do you get together? Do you find a way of resolving situations like that?

I go back to my own riding, which is roughly the size of your map there. I have five aboriginal groups, and they're all saying they want the same area. They're having some difficulty. I'm wondering how you folks are getting around it.

[Chief Patricia Faries]

If you're talking about the map in front of us, that's the Moose Cree First Nation homeland, and that's one nation.

[Jim Eglinski, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

Okay. That's only one nation.