The criticism comes on Sundays.
One by one, they pile up in the email inbox of Cat Lake First Nation Chief Russell Wesley about a mining concession someone has staked on his community’s territory. Sometimes you get as many as 20 in a single day.
As the country’s number one point of contact for mining companies, you could preferably check them out: making sure that if prospectors got here and started looking for minerals at sites, the claims wouldn’t overlap with sites that were culturally vital to Cat. Lake or used through members of the remote flight network in northwestern Ontario to hunt or gather medicines. But most of the time, there are enough hours in the day. Especially when the nation, also known as Bizhiw-zaaga’iganiing Nitam Anishinaabeg, is also grappling with multiple emergencies at once, such as intellectual fitness crises, housing shortages and unusually warm temperatures that have prevented the network’s winter road from opening up to bring in must-have goods.
“There may be a lot of reasons why I can’t look at all those emails,” Wesley told Narwhal.
The deluge of new mining claims has continued even though Cat Lake First Nation’s band council passed a resolution in September banning any mining activity on its territory. It’s a problem other chiefs and other nations are facing as well — even if they’re open to working with mining companies, there are just too many claims coming in and not enough resources and staff to keep up.
Today, the Ontario Chiefs, an organization representing the province’s 133 First Nations, are calling on the province to impose a 365-day pause on mineral claims, saying the Ontario government has allowed an “extreme” and “exponential” accumulation of minerals. Invasion of their lands without their consent. Some communities have noticed claims rise as much as 30 per cent in the past year, Ontario chiefs said, an increase due in large part to the new ability to file claims online.
“Mineral claims continue to grow at a rate that far exceeds First Nations’ ability to respond and has a direct effect on our inherent, treaty-protected and constitutionally protected rights,” Ontario Regional Chief Glen Hare said Wednesday.
The call follows a solution approved in November through the group’s chiefs assembly, which ordered Hare to call for a one-year moratorium on Prime Minister Doug Ford and Mines Minister George Pirie. The settlement also called on Ontario Chiefs to conduct a detailed review of the existing mineral claims system, its effect on First Nations communities and its implications for treaty rights, and expand a mining strategy with recommendations for long-term solutions.
In his statement, Hare also said he was aware that other nations had other perspectives on resource extraction on their lands.
“This moratorium is not intended to, in any way, impede on those who are currently or wish to undertake activities that will bolster economic development in their territories,” Hare said.
The call from Ontario’s bosses comes as the province seeks to make Ontario a hotspot for new mines — that is, those that would produce minerals with higher demand for blank technologies such as electric vehicles. The province is funneling budget to mining exploration corporations and to approve new projects more quickly, passing laws such as last year’s Build More Mines Act.
First Nations, on the other hand, get little assistance in responding to new mining claims, and requests are pouring in. There is a provincial program to which nations can apply for investments to participate in the mining process, but none of its five streams are intended to be used for mineral claims.
In Ontario and many other jurisdictions, mineral rights are distinct from land ownership rights. Even on some properties, the province claims to own the underground minerals and controls the exploration and mining rights there. Businesses and Americans can download those rights by claiming their rights. .
When you think about what this procedure looks like, you probably see a seeker walking through the bushes and driving a stake into the ground. In Ontario, that’s how it worked until recently. But in 2018, the province switched to a new online formula called the Mining Land Management System, or MLAS, which allows almost anyone to obtain a prospector’s permit and file a claim for a small fee. You can do it at any time with just a few clicks: In the resolution, Ontario bosses refer to the procedure as “invisible virtual mining. “The formula was designed by the past Liberal government and implemented just before Doug Ford became prime minister.
Individuals and businesses claiming rights under Ontario’s online formula do not have to live in Canada. They don’t need to have visited the assets on which they download their rights. They also don’t have to consult the First Nation they’re in before claiming territory, and the province doesn’t automatically notify nations when a claim has been made or tell searchers if they’re claiming territory. For many communities, this has meant an avalanche of court cases on which they have little ability to follow or provide comment. A similar formula in British Columbia has caused parallel problems, leading to a landmark court ruling this year that means the province will have to revise it to include Indigenous consultations.
Most mining concessions are never mines. But even if they don’t, they can be damaging: a lease allows the prospector to explore whether there are minerals on the site, which would possibly involve cutting down trees on the land or applying for permits to access drill samples. This alters the land that network members use for harvesting, recreation, or cultural practices, even if the domain was part of a land deal negotiated with a government.
Some Indigenous communities have long held that the system clashes with treaty promises, something the Chiefs of Ontario resolution outlined as well.
“The invisible virtual mining procedure in Ontario compromises and affects the spirit and intent of all unceded treaties and territories in Ontario,” the settlement states.
Other treaties contained other promises; for example, the Robinson Huron Treaty of 1850 covering the northern shore of Lake Huron defined how settlers and indigenous nations would share revenues from land and resource extraction. Canada has complied until the end of the agreement, and Canada and Ontario are now willing to pay a combined $10 billion agreement to the countries that signed the treaty, which is expected to be finalized this year.
In Treaty 9 — covering a giant Ontario domain near James Bay, Crown negotiators verbally promised nations that they would have the right to use their land as they have — but added a line in English — a language the nations representatives did not know — to allow for resource extraction, among other things. Canadian courts have affirmed that verbal promises contained in treaties are binding, but sometimes governments fail to live up to them.
With respect to mineral claims in Ontario, the lack of consultation with First Nations is a recurring problem. Some communities have been cautious for years about claims made for their wisdom or consent.
The Anishinabek Nation, an organization representing 39 First Nations around the Great Lakes, has also called on the Ontario government to call for a moratorium on new mining leases in 2022. The provincial Ministry of Mines has complied, Ontario chiefs said on Wednesday.
In northwestern Ontario, the Grassy Narrows First Nation, or Asubpeeschoseewagong Anishinabek, has registered 6,000 mineral rights on its land since the province introduced the online formula in 2018. The country has cleverly explained why to distrust the industry because its citizens have struggled for a long time. disorders caused by persistent mercury contamination from a former paper mill. The mining claims are within a conserved indigenous domain that the country intends to administer and were made despite Grassy Narrows signaling a moratorium on commercial activity in its territory in 2007.
“Since Ontario brought in online staking, and Premier Ford rolled out the red carpet for industry, it has been like free entry on steroids,” Grassy Narrows land protection lead Joseph Fobister said in a statement.
“Before, we could at least see someone come to our land to gamble. Now they can do it from their offices thousands of miles away without even setting foot here. Often, corporations tell us later that they wish they had known this Grassy Narrows territory and that if they had known they would have stayed away.
Search engines don’t keep the web informed. In one case, claims arose along a resident’s trap line.
“This makes our people very disappointed and scared at the idea of our land being further degraded and us being further affected,” Fobister said.
“For many years, we have been asking Ontario to come to the table on our land issues, but the ministry refuses to communicate to us anything other than proposals to develop mineral exploration.
In September, First Nations from Wapekeka, Neskantaga and Big Trout Lake joined Grassy Narrows in calling on the province to address their concerns about hasty claims by marching to the Toronto Legislature and leading a march of citizens and supporters.
“We’ve been poisoned before and we don’t need any more poisonings to happen on our territory and specifically near the community,” Grassy Narrows Chief Rudy Turtle told The Canadian Press.
To date, the province has not responded to that call, nor to Cat Lake’s. Wesley told the Narwhal that his biggest fear is the allocation of First Mining Gold’s Springpole open pit mine, which would involve draining a lake. Wesley said he is involved in the allocation being for lake trout, guaranteeing the community’s right to fish in the only component of their territory where they can catch the species. The Ontario government is currently contemplating granting the company a permit to build and maintain a winter road leading to the allotment for five years. .
Wesley said the province continually failed to consult with his community, putting him in the difficult position of having to confront the government over his land and rights.
“Unfortunately, this makes us look like enemies all the time,” he said. “Because we’re the last line of defense when something goes wrong. “
Ontario isn’t the only province to allow mineral claims to be made quickly online. British Columbia uses a similar system. In September 2023, following arguments from Gitxaała Nation and Ehattesaht First Nation, the B.C. Supreme Court ruled the system must be overhauled and First Nations must be consulted about mineral claims in their territories. The B.C. government is required to roll out a new system by early 2025. In the meantime, prospectors there are allowed to keep staking claims using the current system. Gitxaała is appealing that point, arguing the time frame for reform is too long.
“The landscape has completely changed as a result of this decision,” Gavin Smith, a lawyer representing the Gitxaała, previously told Narwhal.
British Columbia This resolution could also have implications for countries in other provinces. In the resolution, Ontario chiefs explained their goal to closely examine the verdict and “develop a technical review and feasibility assessment of what the legal features look like. “in Ontario. “
The Gitxaała decision “sets an important precendent,” the Chiefs of Ontario said in their statement.
—With archives through Fatima Syed and Francesca Fionda
Updated January 24, 2024 at 2:55 p. m. ET. m. : This story has been updated with quotes and information from the most recent edition of the Ontario Chiefs press release.