Indigenous Consultation & Engagement Atlantic

Start the event with an exclusive meet and greet – where you can connect face-to-face with key speakers and fellow attendees. Seize this unique opportunity for early access to our faculty of experts and make meaningful connections before the main event!

Join us for a discussion on First Nations led initiatives shaping environmental stewardship, economic resilience, and the overall well-being of Atlantic First Nations. Topics will include:

• Engaging in collaborative solutions for managing overlapping territories, enhancing cooperation, and reducing conflicts
• Exploring evolving human rights issues and consultation priorities
• Understanding the significance of reclaiming traditional names and its role in strengthening cultural identity and heritage

Join Indigenous leaders to hear about the most pressing priorities affecting Indigenous communities, and how to best navigate consultation obligations through 2024. Balancing community health, safety, and economic growth with pressing consultation priorities.

Topics for discussion include:

• Assessing the impact of housing and childcare shortages on community wellbeing, and the participation Indigenous women in the workforce
• Exploring the threats of climate change, disaster management and extreme weather management through the lens of Indigenous Traditional Knowledge and protected lands
• Listening to perspectives of Metis, Inuit, and other Atlantic Canada Indigenous groups on title and name changes throughout 2023-2024

The Blueberry River Court decision in Yahey v British Columbia is impacting consultations across Canada, as governments become more diligent in considering cumulative impacts earlier in the project development process. Join this session for everything you need to know and how it is affecting consultation in Atlantic Canada. Topics of discussion will include:

• Debating how governments should consider cumulative impacts when issuing fishing permits
• Examining the level of development needed to infringe on rights through climate change and disaster risk management
• Discussing farther reaching implications of cumulative effects, such as climate change and cross border claims from American Nations

Throughout recent years, extreme weather events have become more common across Canada, and Atlantic Nations are balancing risk reduction planning amongst other consultation priorities. Join us to learn about how the Canadian Red Cross, Governments, and Indigenous communities are creating disaster risk reduction plans and building risk analysis into the engagement process.

• Examining how knowledge dissemination across communities is critical to keeping people safe during emergencies
• Proposing new ideas for collaboration to be better prepared to support each other in an emergency event
• Learning about how to engage all members of the community, including youth, to prepare and support consultations and community engagement

• Analyzing how project management plays a role in economic and social constitution and reconciliation
• Identifying ways to gain better outcomes during consultation within planned projects and community initiatives

In this session, panelists will consider the complexities of overlapping claims and their effects on consultations. Session leaders will analyze recent case law and compare them with best practices from various jurisdictions, providing insights into these challenges. Topics of discussion will include:

• Utilizing indigenous traditional knowledge and elder participation in consultation and the benefits traditional knowledge can have in helping communities work together in overlapping territories
• Exploring the trend of returning to traditional names through title changes across Atlantic Canada, enhancing cultural identity and respect in consultation processes
• Evaluating the impact of US groups asserting rights for cumulative effects on overlapping territory claims in Canada

Indigenous Nations and communities become increasingly active as investors in the Canadian and global economy, this session will explore:

• What Indigenous values and worldviews influence their economic decisions;
• How Indigenous communities ensure that their economic participation is reflective of their values (i.e. shareholder activism, exclusionary action, etc);
• How can non-Indigenous players in the economy work to support Indigenous communities in their economic participation; and,
• What are the panelists predictions for the future of Indigenous economic participation.

As future leaders in Canada, Indigenous youth can contribute important insights to the national discourse on public policy priorities to improve Indigenous community wellbeing and relations with governments and industry. In Deloitte’s Future of Canada Centre’s report series in partnership with Indigenous Youth Roots, Indigenous youth participants shared their unique experiences and recommendations on how governments and businesses can eliminate barriers for Indigenous peoples and foster more constructive relationships. Policy topics will include:

• Indigenous youth experiences in education and early career development
• Community wellbeing and access to mental health services
• Climate change and reconciling relations
• Indigenous sovereignty from the perspective of Indigenous youth

Federal Regulations outline requirements for storage tank systems, but these requirements are not always appropriate or effective for diverse communities. Amendments are underway, but understanding what challenges First Nations and tenants on Aboriginal lands are facing which impact their ability to comply over the long term is critical to developing sound legislation.

Join the federal Government for a session on:

• Engaging in rulemaking and outlining critical concerns with current legislation
• Improving collaboration with regulated communities on Aboriginal Lands
• Discussing the protocols and brainstorm solutions for effectively maintaining storage tanks and related facilities

The cost of inflation, opportunities, and other factors are creating the need for more people to live closer to cities and off reserve. Join us for a discussion about how to consult and engage with off-reserve community members and learn about strategies for engaging and involving community members living off reserve into the consultation and engagement process.

Topics of discussion will include:

• Exploring the importance of language advocacy in the consultation process, both in terms of naming conventions and literacy
• Conducting consultations across overlapping territories and understandings of relations between neighboring nations are often blurred by cumulative concerns
• Case Study: Indigenous Traditional Knowledge and land management considerations for cumulative effect consultations

Reimagine the consultation process and explore collaborative strategies to enhance approaches for achieving positive outcomes. Session leaders will examine current practices, identify challenges, and brainstorm solutions to elevate the process. Engage to help shape the future of effective consultations.

Experiencing the cumulative effects of all energy projects is important when designing and responding to consultation processes. The increase demand for green hydrogen and wind farms and lack of education surrounding safety is causing concerns.

Topics of discussion will include:

• Exploring best practices for long-term engagement, collaboration and relationship building through energy consultation
• Determining how to expand traditional knowledge including Indigenous culture and history, and it can expedite consultation processes
• Understanding the implications for relations between industry, first nations, regulators, and government for off-shore energy project development

R. v. Montour and White recently recognized 10 never previously acknowledged by a Canadian court Crown-Indigenous Treaties, rewrote the Supreme Court of Canada’s Vanderpeet test for Aboriginal rights, and found that the UNDRIP had been adopted into Canadian law due to the federal UNDRIP ACT, all in establishing Indigenous peoples’ rights to economic development, and to be consulted on any legislation which regulates or limits such development.

This session will explore:

• How the results of this Quebec Superior Court case be applied in Atlantic Canada and
  beyond
• Exploring how the results of this Quebec Superior Court case be applied in Ontario and beyond
• What is required for similar positive trial litigation results upholding treaty and Aboriginal rights
• What the right to economic development mean for the future of Crown-Indigenous consultation and accommodation?

As Atlantic Canada experiences population growth, the number of mining, energy and other large infrastructure projects in the region has increased. Explore recent cases affecting project consultations and learn how to navigate consultation fatigue amongst competing priorities.

• Analyzing recent cases in trading rights over the St. Lawerence River and related impacts on cross-border trade with US Nations
• Evaluating the impact mining, infill work, and other infrastructure projects cumulatively have on forestry, and other closely related sectors and environmental considerations
• Discussing case studies on procurement and material sourcing for large infrastructure projects in line with consultation requirements

Recent court rulings are reshaping fishing permit protocols. Wild salmon and freshwater fish species are culturally significant to First Nations communities. In this session, our leaders will explore the landscape of fishing rights on the Atlantic coast by considering the collaborative efforts between provincial and federal governments and Indigenous nations to foster sustainable fisheries.

This session will provide a real-time collaborative initiative, creating a space for genuine relationship development. Using the example of watershed planning we will examine how organizations can better inform decision-making and to ensure watershed resiliency. We will also explore the significance of trust and language in leading to collaboratively leading change.