Major projects CEO faces B.C. First Nations’ frustrations over lack of consultations

Major Projects CEO Dawn Farrell told First Nations in B.C. on Wednesday that the frustrations expressed over a lack of consultation on the Pacific Link pipeline made her feel like Canada is “never going to work,” but her office is determined to try to be better.

Farrell was addressing the B.C. Assembly of First Nations at its annual general meeting in Vancouver. Media were asked to leave the room before Farrell’s appearance, but the meeting continued to be publicly streamed on the B.C. Assembly of First Nations YouTube channel.

First Nations in B.C. are calling on Ottawa to set national standards for Indigenous consultations on major projects. They say they were given just 11 working days to review and engage on whether the proposed Pacific Link pipeline should be designated as a project of national interest.

The standard, they say, should include “minimum procedural protections,” including protected timelines for consultations before decisions are made.

The proposed pipeline from Alberta to B.C. was named a project in the national interest on Oct. 1 by Prime Minister Mark Carney alongside Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

The designation does not eliminate the requirement for the government to consult with First Nations on the impact of the project itself. Rather, the goal is to complete the required reviews and consultations over the next year so construction can begin next September.

Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc Chief Rosanne Casimir, who presented the call for a national consultation standard, said the current process expects First Nations to review thousands of documents under tight timelines and with limited funding.

“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, referring to an anecdote Farrell shared about having two binders of 1,200 pages on her coffee table.

“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 agrees with the concept of national consultation standards but she wondered how such standards would work alongside the government’s accelerated timelines for project approvals.

“I hear your pleas and I hear your discussions and I hear, you know, sort of a disbelief that it’s ever going to change, and a cynicism. And I feel like, ‘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.

She added that staff in her office have “very, very big scars” from working on projects like the Trans Mountain pipeline that didn’t have the depth of Indigenous consultation the Pacific Link pipeline “has after two months.”

“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.”

The federal government initially planned to hold consultations for one month on whether to designate the pipeline as a project in the national interest under the Building Canada Act. That was extended to two months after Indigenous leaders raised concerns about the tight timeline.

A summary of those consultations posted online by the federal government says Indigenous groups decried a lack of information about the project, which they said prevented them from fully assessing its impact.

On Wednesday, Farrell acknowledged adequate consultation was key for seeing a project be successful.

“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,” Farrell 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.”

Farrell faced criticism at the meeting over the federal government’s push to move quickly on approving major projects.

“Our concern is not efficiency itself. It’s whether the speed and certainty for proponents are being advanced equivalent protection for Aboriginal title and rights, our governance and the lands and waters that sustain our people,” said Shana Thomas, hereditary chief of the Lyackson First Nation.

“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.”

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak has said staff in the Major Projects Office do not understand how to work with First Nations communities and that “junior staffers” aren’t helping to build relationships.

She also said Farrell has been unavailable to meet with leadership, including at Assembly of First Nations gatherings.

Farrell said in the closed-door meeting Wednesday the only way she knows how to do her work is “to not talk very much.”

“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,” she said.

In an emailed statement last week, the Privy Council Office said the Major Projects Office works closely with Indigenous communities and that senior officials make themselves available to meet with communities when asked.

First Nations in B.C. also passed a resolution at Wednesday’s meeting calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to halt the advance of the Building Canada Act and to repeal Bill C-39 if it passes through Parliament.

The legislation would fast-track approvals for major projects, cut their review times and create zones of “national interest” to pre-approve certain types of projects.

First Nations chiefs have warned the government it risks ending up in court if it approves and builds projects without their free, prior and informed consent, as outlined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Chiefs are set to meet with Carney and the country’s premiers in Ottawa later this month, and major projects are expected to be a major topic of debate.