CBC – Five First Nations in Northern Ontario – Neskantaga, Attawapiskat, Fort Albany, Kashechewan and Weenusk First Nations – sent a letter on Dec. 10, 2020 to the federal Impact Assessment Agency demanding more time for the consultation process announced on Nov. 12, 2020 with a deadline of Jan. 21, 2020. They wanted the date pushed back because of capacity issues related to the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic including an ongoing water crisis and forced evacuations. In the letter, the chiefs wrote, “we do not want the [regional assessment] to start off on a track that is short and leads to dead ends; that does not make full use of the opportunity presented here and ends up being mere window dressing.”

The government’s response was to extend the deadline by eight days until Jan. 29, 2020.

But that didn’t fit Chief Moonias’ definition of meaningful consultation. “You have consultation before you start your project. You have to get permission from the nation before you start the project, that’s how we understand good faith consultation anyways … there’ll be no development in our nation’s territory unless we say so,” he said.

York University professor and Ring of Fire expert Dayna Scott, who has worked on research projects with Neskantaga in recent years, said, “if communities without the capacity to participate right now are going to just be sidelined or excluded and the planning is all going to continue ahead, then it seems that the government just wants to continue with that usual sort of same old approach that non-Indigenous interests can drive the future of the far north.” The York professor added, “but it’s a problem. It shows the audacity of both levels of government here that they think it’s okay to just push these First Nations to the side and continue on with their planning for a region that’s exclusively occupied by Indigenous people.”