Engage early to avoid First Nations veto, AFN chief tells energy conference
OTTAWA — Free, prior and informed indigenous consent means the right to say yes or no to major resource projects, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations told an oil industry-sponsored energy conference Thursday.
Perry Bellegarde’s speech to the “Engage” conference at the University of Ottawa stressed that involving First Nations in potential projects from the get-go is the only way to achieve true accommodation — and economic stability.
“The inherent right to self determination means the right to say yes or no to projects, and I respect that right,” Bellegarde told an audience that included resource industry groups, policy experts and academics.
But he twice alluded to the “v-word” — a First Nations veto — and said he’d like to put the word “on a shelf for a while” as a new relationship on resource development is worked out.