Matawa First Nations End Litigation to Focus on Negotiated
Solution in Ring of Fire
Thunder Bay, September 10
, 2013
-
The Matawa First Nations Chiefs
have decided to end
the Judicial
R
eview litigation that challenged the
type of
environmental a
ssessment process
(EA)
being used
for the
Cliffs
Chromite P
roject. The case was scheduled to be heard by the Federal Cour
t in mid
-
September. This
summer
the Government of Ontario be
gan talks with
the Matawa
First Nations on the Ring of Fire.
“We never wanted a judge to decide our future if we could avoid it,”
noted
Chief Sonny
Gagnon of
Aroland First Nation,
“Like we always said, we want to determine our
own solutions, by negotiation
.”
“
When we started the
court
case
there was no negotiation table so we were pushed into a corner
.
There’s a forum for discussions with Ontario
now
and it’s going to look at the environmental assessment
q
uestion as well as other issues,
”
said Chief
Gagnon.
Talks with Ontario
recently got
underway with
Bob Rae as the First Nations’ regional negotiator
,
and
Frank Iacobucci as the P
rovince’s negotiator.
It is
anticipate
d
t
hat project proponents and the Federal
G
overnment will also be involved.
The environmen
tal assessment process is
one of the issues up for
discussion. Other issues include
regional
infrastructure, environmental monitoring, revenue sharing, and
community development
.
“We’re focusing on
negotiations
,” said Chief Elizabeth Atlookan
,
of
Eabametoong
First Nation,
“
b
ut let
me be clear, this doesn’t mean everything’s fine. The negotiation process is starting, not ending.
This is
very far from over.
But
we’ve always said negotiation is our first priority, and it is
.
We’re approaching
this in
good faith.
”
“We are not happy with the current EA process, b
ut w
hat we have now is a way to change it,
negotiated
agreement. A court
-
ordered solution is never going to
be as good as our own solution,
”
added Chief
Gagnon
http://www.matawa.on.ca/upload/documents/media-release-judical-review-matawa-sept.pdf
