Global News Edmonton has reported:

Major Projects Office CEO Dawn Farrell faced criticism from First Nations leaders in British Columbia on Wednesday over consultation on the proposed Pacific Link pipeline, as they urged Ottawa to set national standards for Indigenous consultations on major projects. Farrell said the concerns and distrust expressed at the B.C. Assembly of First Nations’ annual general meeting in Vancouver made her feel that Canada might never work, but said her office was committed to trying to do better.

The meeting continued to be streamed publicly on the B.C. Assembly of First Nations’ YouTube channel after media were asked to leave before Farrell’s appearance. First Nations in B.C. say they were given only 11 working days to review and engage on whether the proposed pipeline should be designated a project of national interest. They are calling for minimum procedural protections, including guaranteed consultation timelines before governments make decisions.

The proposed pipeline would run from Alberta to B.C. Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith named it a project in the national interest on Oct. 1. That designation does not remove the government’s obligation to consult First Nations about the project’s effects. The stated aim is to complete the required reviews and consultations over the next year so construction can start next September.

Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Chief Rosanne Casimir presented the call for a national consultation standard. She said First Nations are expected to review thousands of documents under tight deadlines and with limited funding, and argued that information can arrive only after decisions and processes are already under way.

Casimir referred to an anecdote Farrell had shared about having two binders containing 1,200 pages on her coffee table. “Even in your presentation initially starting off, you shared that there was excessive amounts of papers and documents. Well, we’re receiving that after the fact,” Casimir said.

She said nations and communities struggle to understand a project while decisions continue to advance. “Meaningful consultation is difficult when nations, communities, are still trying to understand the project while decisions are continuing to move forward. For the (Pacific Link) oil pipeline, we raised process concerns, and Canada took nearly a month to respond and only 11 working days remained for the review and engagement.”

Farrell said she supported the concept of national consultation standards, while questioning how they would fit with the federal government’s accelerated project approval timelines. She described hearing disbelief and cynicism from First Nations representatives and said their comments made her think, “Oh my God, we can never get this country to work. Like it’s never going to work. We’ll never make it.”

Farrell said staff in her office carried “very, very big scars” from work on projects such as the Trans Mountain pipeline, which she said did not receive the depth of Indigenous consultation that Pacific Link had received “after two months.” She said her office was committed to improving its approach, but recognized that First Nations would need to see results before trusting its assurances.

“Because we’re all committed in our office to try to do it better. Now, what does doing it better look like? It’s really hard to sit here and actually lay out what a day looks like and what the work looks like, and really, you’re not going to believe us at all,” Farrell said. “No amount of presentation that I’m going to give … is going to give you a sense of what we’re trying to accomplish. The only thing that will give you that sense of it is if we actually do, in action, get to a different place.”

“The best I can do is the best I can do. Our office is working hard to try to accommodate all the concerns you brought here today. And I totally get that you will not believe us until we deliver. And so we’ll mostly spend all of our time delivering, and maybe next year when we come back we’ll have some examples of how we try to deliver,” she said.

The federal government first planned a one-month consultation period on whether to designate Pacific Link a project of national interest under the Building Canada Act. Indigenous leaders objected to the short timeline, prompting an extension to two months. A federal summary of the consultation, posted online, says Indigenous groups criticized a lack of project information and said that gap prevented them from fully assessing its effects.

Farrell acknowledged on Wednesday that adequate consultation was necessary for projects to succeed. “The projects that we have to deliver out of our office have to achieve your rights. We have to make sure that we go through your processes,” she said.

“We can’t just make stuff up. The courts will just come and overturn the projects and we’ll be like Canada’s always been, 10, 15 years, dragging stuff around in the ditch and not getting it done and wasting time and money and resources, and your time and your people’s resources. We can’t keep doing that.”

Shana Thomas, hereditary chief of the Lyackson First Nation, said the issue was not efficiency on its own, but whether proponents’ speed and certainty were matched by equivalent protections for Aboriginal title, rights, governance, and the lands and waters that sustain First Nations. She said First Nations needed to be partners in decisions rather than having their input assessed by governments after the fact.

“Consultation is something you do. We are a partner at this table and we need to be part of the decision-making process. What we have to say is not something that you can then evaluate and make your own decision based on what you think about what we said. We have to be at the table as equal partners,” Thomas said.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak has criticized the Major Projects Office, saying its staff do not understand how to work with First Nations communities and that “junior staffers” are not building relationships. She has also said Farrell has been unavailable to meet with leaders, including at Assembly of First Nations gatherings.

Farrell said in Wednesday’s closed-door meeting that “the only way I know how to do my work is to not talk very much.” She said, “They can’t get me on planes to go anywhere because I feel a huge responsibility to make sure that these projects that we’re working on hit the standards that you’re talking about today.” In an emailed statement the previous week, the Privy Council Office said the Major Projects Office works closely with Indigenous communities and senior officials make themselves available to meet communities when asked.

First Nations in B.C. also passed a resolution on Wednesday calling on Carney to stop advancing the Building Canada Act and repeal Bill C-39 if it passes through Parliament. The legislation would speed approvals for major projects, shorten review periods and establish zones of “national interest” where certain project types could receive advance approval.

First Nations chiefs have warned that the government risks court challenges if it approves and builds projects without their free, prior and informed consent, as set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Chiefs are scheduled to meet Carney and Canada’s premiers in Ottawa later this month, with major projects expected to be a significant subject of discussion.