‘A massive blow to Reconciliation’: Bill to enshrine duty to consult voted down

A bill that would have enshrined the Saskatchewan government’s duty to consult Indigenous communities was voted down by government MLAs on Thursday morning.

“We’ve known for ages that this government has no interest in true Reconciliation. With this vote they are saying the quiet part out loud,” Betty Nippi-Albright, the NDP’s Critic for First Nations and Métis Relations, said in a news release.

“This is a massive blow to Reconciliation and a slap in the face to Indigenous communities across Saskatchewan. It shows that this government just doesn’t care about the Duty to Consult.”

Currently the province has a policy around the duty to consult with Indigenous communities when a project might impact them, and the government itself decides when the duty is triggered.

Nippi-Albright’s bill would have put the duty into law and established “teeth,” as she called them. She said legislation is needed to hold the government to account and to make sure Indigenous peoples aren’t left out of decision-making.

Nippi-Albright introduced the bill in the fall sitting on behalf of Indigenous leaders across the province. MLAs voted on second reading Thursday — with all the NDP MLAs in attendance voting for and all the government MLAs in attendance, as well at Sask. United MLA Nadine Wilson, voting against.

Ahead of the vote, Nippi-Albright made a speech for the legislation.

“We have to respect the treaty and inherent rights. And we have to respect meaningful duty to consult. We have to walk together on meaningful reconciliation, not just two sides talking about the treaty territories, not that, we have to walk our talk. When we talk about consultation, we have to talk that (and) we have to walk that,” she said.

If the province doesn’t start consulting more, Nippi-Albright says there will be more and more court challenges to provincial legislation.

“And the taxpayers of this province are going to be paying the cost of your losses and mistakes,” she said.

Before they voted, Nippi-Albright asked the MLAs to think about the treaty rights holders in the province and the duty to meaningfully consult.

“That would be the right thing to do for the people in this province, is to legislate provincial duty to consult in this province,” she said.

When asked about the bill during Question Period, Minister Responsible for First Nations, Métis and Northern Affairs Don McMorris said this government does respect treaty rights and the treaty land entitlements that go with it.

McMorris also argued that the Constitution already requires consultation be done, that it’s already in law and therefore makes the bill redundant.