Hello, everyone. I'm Chief Swappie. I'm here with Robert Prévost. He works with us on various files with the Naskapi Nation.
We weren't expecting 10 minutes today. We'll skim through the 14-page presentation we were going to give. I'll start with the introduction.
The Naskapi nations have in the past always depended on caribou. Prior to contact, they occupied and lived off a very vast territory spanning from the Lower North Shore area of the province of Quebec in the south, up to Ungava Bay in the north, and including a large portion of what is known today as new Quebec—Nunavik—and the Labrador Peninsula.
Following various unilateral decisions by the Hudson's Bay Company as well as Indian Affairs, which were made without consideration of the Naskapis' interests and concerns, the Naskapis were finally relocated in Kawawachikamach, according to anthropologist Alan Cooke.
Located 10 kilometres northeast of the town of Schefferville, near the Quebec-Labrador border, Kawawachikamach is the only Naskapi community in the province of Quebec, with a population in 2017 of approximately 904 community members out of a total of 1,300 registered members.
In 1978 the Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach entered into the Northeastern Quebec Agreement,known as NEQA, with the Province of Quebec and Canada. The NEQA is a modern treaty, protected by section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982. As such, its provisions are legally binding for Quebec and Canada, and the rights granted therein to the Naskapis attract constitutional protection. The NEQA was signed in the same historical and political context as the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, the JBNQA, and effectively puts the Naskapis on par with the Crees and the Inuit under the JBNQA, as Quebec's and Canada's treaty partners. The JBNQA and the NEQA perform on a vast tract of land corresponding to the area previously known as Rupert's Land—the territory.
The land regime of the territory falls under the auspices of both the NEQA and the JBNQA. Namely, the NEQA establishes the Naskapi area of primary interest. The NEQA also delineates a portion of the territory shared between the Naskapis and the Inuit, referred to as the “area of common interest”. Together the Naskapi area of primary interest and the area of common interest formed the Naskapi sector, which covers more than 100,000 square kilometres. The Naskapi sector represents approximately 10% of the area covered by Quebec's Plan Nord, and is straddled by the Labrador Trough, a mineral-rich belt where major mining development has taken place since the 1950s.
The NEQA and the JBNQA lay out some rights, structures, processes, and resources necessary, but not always sufficient, to the development of the nation. They allowed the creation of a strong local government in Kawawachikamach and ensured the provision of the services of policing, health care, social services, and education in the community. Since 1978 the community has grown significantly. Investments in infrastructure include a school, a CLSC, a police station, and numerous public facilities. Several business opportunities were also created by the nation, promoting economic development and Naskapi employment.
Since the signature of the NEQA, the Naskapi Nation has developed significantly, and the realities of the Naskapis, including their needs, have dramatically changed. Thirty-nine years after its establishment, a dialogue needs to be opened to revisit the NEQA in a manner so as to improve its enforceability and performance.
We have a non-exhaustive summary of the components of NEQA and the JBNQA that we believe should be improved.
I'll hand this over to Robert.