SLOWING INDIGENOUS DEVELOPMENT

 I am not a lawyer, but I have spent my professional life in First Nations administration and the oil and gas industry and know first-hand what happens when federal bureaucracy gets in the way of responsible resource development. However well-intentioned C-15 is, my discussions with legal experts, industry representatives and investment bankers persuade me it is introducing another layer of uncertainty and risk to development in Indigenous territories. That is because it adds to the confusion about who has the authority to provide or deny consent on behalf of Indigenous peoples, be it chief and council, hereditary chiefs, or small groups of activists. It also implies that a single nation can deny consent — a veto in practice if not in name — on projects that cross dozens of territories, be they pipelines, railroads or electric transmission lines.