Finding Common Ground: A Critical Review of Land Use and Resource Management Policies in Ontario, Canada and their Intersection with First Nations

Abstract

This article provides an in-depth analysis of selective land use and resource management policies in the Province of Ontario, Canada. It examines their relative capacity to recognize the rights of First Nations and Aboriginal peoples and their treaty rights, as well as their embodiment of past Crown-First Nations relationships. An analytical framework was developed to evaluate the manifest and latent content of 337 provincial texts, including 32 provincial acts, 269 regulatory documents, 16 policy statements, and 5 provincial plans. This comprehensive document analysis classified and assessed how current provincial policies address First Nation issues and identified common trends and areas of improvement. The authors conclude that there is an immediate need for guidance on how provincial authorities can improve policy to make relationship-building a priority to enhance and sustain relationships between First Nations and other jurisdictions.

Evaluation of criteria for meaningful Aboriginal consultation in Canada during environmental assessment

“…Consultation continues to evolve via policy frameworks (McLeod et al, 2015). Federal procedures outlined by AANDC (2011), aim to assist federal officials in matters affecting Aboriginal rights and title.…”

“…Federal procedures outlined by AANDC (2011), aim to assist federal officials in matters affecting Aboriginal rights and title. Provincial guidelines cite that provincial staff should consult with their own legal staff for further guidance (McLeod et al, 2015). Provincial agencies often develop their own DtC guidelines within provincial legislation (Newman, 2009).…”

“…The diversity of cases serve as the foundation for the Tsilhqot'in Nation v. British Columbia (2014) decision, where the SCC granted 1750 km 2 of land to the Tsilhqot'in, representing the SCC's first ever judicial declaration of Aboriginal title to a specific land area (McLeod, 2015). In British Columbia (BC) where nearly all of the land is under claim of FNs, existing economic development projects risk being terminated or suspended (Bain, 2014).…”

Getting to Common Ground: A Comparison of Ontario, Canada’s Provincial Policy Statement and the Auckland Council Regional Policy Statement with Respect to Indigenous Peoples

“…With on-the-ground land use planning and decision-making in Southern Ontario largely directed and guided by The Province through the Planning Act (Government of Ontario, 1990) and PPS, the integration of specific policies concerning Aboriginal peoples in the most recent iteration of the PPS (2014) was recognized as both significant and long overdue (Dorries, 2014;McLeod et al 2014). Based on the findings of McLeod et al (2015), the PPS was also recognized as a relatively significant provincial land use and resource management text in its relative capacity at recognizing and supporting First Nations, Aboriginal and treaty rights, and embodying past Crown-First Nations relationships, when assessed along with 336 other provincial land use planning and resource management texts. However, to fully comprehend the strengths and limitations of recent changes to the PPS, we identified an immediate need to move beyond relative assessments of Ontario land use planning and resource management texts, and to carry out a comparison with a similar guiding planning policy statement from another settler state.…”

“…Questions that inform this element and set of indicators (Table 3) are grounded in the work of McLeod et al (2015), and are intended to identify the degree of willingness of the Crown set out in each policy statement to honour past relations. Still, historically, Indigenous peoples do not enter planning systems on equal terms, and consultation and accommodation policies may not fundamentally change a community's uneven starting point in the planning process (Hibbard et al, 2008).…”