Matt Prokopchuk
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
TBnewswatch.com
THUNDER BAY — Pierre Poilievre says his party’s plan would further fast-track resource development projects and see more money flow into First Nations to “get everyone to ‘yes’ faster.”
Speaking to a room of employees at Domtar’s Thunder Bay sawmill after touring the facility on Oct. 14, Poilievre said one of his party’s core plans is to create more jobs by further speeding up permitting for resource extraction and other industrial projects.
“We have to get rid of the red tape and speed up the permits for businesses that hire people,” he said. “We should have the fastest permits in the world to dig a mine, build a pipeline, construct (a liquefied natural gas) plant or build anything in this country.”
“For example, we should rapidly provide permits for the Ring of Fire — a Ring of Fire which would allow us to harvest the resources of northern Ontario and the future road to the ring would be near Thunder Bay, so many of the indirect benefits would flow to this area.”
Speaking with reporters after his speech, Poilievre reemphasized the need to build faster, and again pushed his proposed “Canada Sovereignty Act,” which he said “would rapidly greenlight pipelines, mines, LNG terminals, port expansions, bridges and other self-financing economic projects that make us more self-reliant from the Americans.”
“That would allow us also to go to the U.S. with a position of strength, and we know that with this administration, strength is the only thing that they respect.”
The current Liberal government has already passed legislation formerly known as Bill C-5, which aims to speed up the regulatory processes to get projects deemed “in the national interest” shovel-ready. Those laws, along with provincial ones enacted by the Ford government around the same time, have already drawn strong opposition from First Nations and environmental groups.
That opposition includes nine Ontario First Nations challenging the federal and provincial laws in court.
Poilievre’s remarks also come as Marten Falls First Nation has launched its own legal proceedings against the federal and provincial Crowns over hydroelectric dam diversion projects in the 1940s and 50s that the community says were done without consent. They’re arguing that only one side saw any benefits, and it wasn’t the First Nation.
Chief Bruce Achneepineskum has told Newswatch it’s to make sure any future resource development in its traditional territory is done as a nation-to-nation partnership, and not in a top-down, paternalistic way.
When asked about how his party would balance further speeding up development permitting with avoiding legal challenges, Poilievre said he would “incentivize First Nations by allowing them to keep a share of the corporate tax revenue generated from projects on their lands.”
“That would mean that there would be a greater incentive that could be used for funding local schools, clean water, hospitals, job training and other benefits to the local community,” he continued.
“So, let’s make this a win-win that will get everyone to ‘yes’ faster.”
