Published May 1, 2024 – Joy SpearChief-Morris (Toronto Star)

OTTAWA — The federal government has signed a five-year funding agreement worth more than $187 million to help more First Nations assume governance of reserve lands and their natural resources.

The memorandum of understanding signed Wednesday by Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu and Chief Robert Louie, chair of the Lands Advisory Board and Austin Bear, chair of the First Nations Land Management Resource Centre, will provide additional funding for First Nations land management across the country.

The Lands Advisory Board and First Nations Land Management Resource Centre work together to support First Nations communities that want to take control of their reserve lands by creating their own community land codes.

Wednesday’s agreement extends the organizations’ funding for five years as they assist First Nations seeking self-governance outside of the Indian Act’s restrictions on land.

“The operational developmental funding directed here and over these five years will greatly assist our peoples, our First Nations communities across Canada to exercise land governance and protection of their reserve lands,” said Louie, who is chief of Westbank First Nation in British Columbia, at a news conference in Ottawa on Wednesday.

“First Nations have proven very clearly that good things can happen when we make our own decisions for the benefit of our members, our neighbours — the whole country benefits.”

Hajdu said First Nations can improve the health and livelihood of their communities by re-establishing control over reserve lands, and increase their ability to attract investments to help close the existing infrastructure gap.

“We’re talking about regaining control over land that was not just dispossessed, but often, controlled deeply by an Indian Act and a Canadian colonial government,” she said.

“I’m very excited about this piece of work that I believe helps the government of Canada to shed colonial habits and leave the Indian Act behind and avoid a one-size-fits-all solution.”

In 1996, Canada signed the Framework Agreement for First Nations Land Management with 13 First Nations to recognize self-government rights over their reserve lands, environments and natural resources.

The framework was implemented through the First Nations Land Management Act in 1999. It allowed those First Nations to opt-out of 44 sections of the Indian Act that restrict land use and prohibit land ownership by First Nations by developing their own community land codes.

In 2022, the First Nations Land Management Act was replaced by the Framework Agreement on First Nation Land Management Act, which removed inconsistencies between the original act and the framework agreement.

There are currently more than 211 First Nations as signatories. The 118 land codes they have in place account for more than 1.2 million acres of reserve lands that are now in the control of First Nations governments.

“We cannot be wards of the state. We cannot be dependent upon decision-making that rests with others. We have to take charge,” Louie said.

Wednesday’s agreement will provide $187 million in funding over five years, and more than $34 million committed in last year’s federal budget, to the Land Advisory Board and First Nations Land Management Resource Centre.

The funding is expected to support as many as 50 more First Nations becoming signatories to the framework agreement in the next five years, and will also provide 21 per cent more funding for First Nations that already have land codes.

In every corner of the country, Canadians are engaging more with climate action. In 2023, one in 10 passenger cars sold was an electric vehicle (EV), and a fifth of those sales required no government subsidy. We bought more heat pumps, too, than in all previous years put together, as sales of these emissions-free devices overtook natural gas furnace sales for the first time.

Read the full report here.

Nairobi, 1 March 2024 – The sixth UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) concluded today in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, with Member States delivering 15 resolutions aiming to boost multilateral efforts to address the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature loss and pollution.

More than 5,600 people – representing 190 countries – participated in the week-long Assembly held at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, focused on effective, inclusive, and sustainable multilateral actions to tackle climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.

The UNEA-6 resolutions advance the work of Member States on management of metals, mineral resources, chemicals and waste, on environmental assistance and recovery in areas impacted by armed conflict, on integrated water resource management in the domestic sector, agriculture and industry to tackle water stress, on sustainable lifestyles, on rehabilitation of degraded lands and waters, and more.

The 2024 Assembly also held its first Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEA) Day, dedicated to the international agreements addressing the most pressing environmental issues of global or regional concern, which are critical instruments of international environmental governance and international environmental law. UNEA-6 also welcomed youth to host their own environmental summit, which called for greater inter-generational equity.

A Ministerial Declaration on the closing day affirmed Member States’ commitment to slow climate change, restore and protect biodiversity, create a pollution-free world and confront issues of desertification, land and soil degradation, drought and deforestation by taking effective, inclusive and sustainable multilateral actions.

“I am proud to say this was a successful Assembly, where we advanced on our core mandate: the legitimate human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, everywhere,” said Leila Benali, UNEA-6 President and the Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development of Morocco. “We have agreed on 15 resolutions, two decisions and a ministerial declaration.”

“As governments, we need to push for more and reinvented partnerships with key stakeholders to implement these mandates. We need to continue to partner with civil society, continue to guide and empower our creative youth, and also with the private sector and philanthropies,” she added.

Inger Andersen, UNEP’s Executive Director, said: “Madam President has gavelled 15 resolutions and two decisions, which cover important aspects of the triple planetary crisis. You asked for advances in securing the metals and minerals needed for the transition to net-zero. You called for the world to do better on protecting the environment during and after conflicts. You delivered resolutions that will help UNEP and Member States do more on chemicals and waste, and sand and dust storms”.

“The President has gavelled resolutions that address desertification, land restoration and more. We also have a ministerial declaration that affirms the international community’s strong intent to slow climate change, restore nature and land, and create a pollution-free world,” she said.

“UNEP will now take forward the responsibilities you have entrusted to us in these new resolutions. In addition to keeping the environment under review. In addition to fulfilling our obligation to serve as an authoritative advocate for action across the triple planetary crisis,” Andersen added.

“The world needs action. The world needs speed. The world needs real, lasting change. UNEA-6 has delivered an extra boost to help us deliver this change and to ensure every person on this planet enjoys the right to a safe and healthy environment,” she said.

UNEA-6 also elected a new President to preside over UNEA-7 – Abdullah Bin Ali Amri, Chairman of the Environment Authority of Oman.

“In our quest to confront the monumental environmental challenges of our time—climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution—there is but one path forward: teamwork. We share one Earth, bask under the same sun, and we must recognize that there is no backup plan. There’s no other planet waiting for us to escape to. Hence, it’s imperative that we unite our efforts with urgency and determination to safeguard our precious planet and protect its natural splendor. Together, let’s embark on this crucial journey to secure a sustainable future for generations to come,” said Bin Ali Amri, who closed his speech with an appeal for peace on and towards earth. 

Data from the 2024 Global Resource Outlook, which was launched at UNEA, warned that without urgent and concerted action to reduce global consumption and production, extraction of natural resources could rise by 60 per cent from 2020 levels, driving increasing climate damage and risks to biodiversity and human health. The Global Waste Management Outlook 2024 showed that without a seismic shift away from ‘take-make-dispose’ societies towards circular economy and zero-waste approaches, the world’s waste pile could grow by two-thirds by 2050, and its cost to health, economies and the environment could double.  A UNEP report on Used Heavy Duty Vehicles and the Environment, launched during a Climate and Clean Air Conference held in Nairobi ahead of UNEA, sounded the alarm on the rise of emissions from these heavy polluters, and their negative climate and health impacts.

Member states also agreed to hold the next UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-7) in 8-12 December, 2025.

Streamed live on April 26, 2024.

Building public support, incorporating local perspectives, inviting innovative ideas from diverse stakeholders and fostering education and public awareness are key pillars to help create clean energy transition plans that are inclusive, locally specific and effective.

This session aims to explore social dialogue and citizen engagement mechanisms and strategies to involve all parts of society to build public support for clean energy transitions.

The discussion will be followed by closing remarks.

A document imbued with incrementalism offered at least one big energy policy advance with the long-awaited Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program 

The federal government’s new approach to communicating the details of its 2024 federal budget — telling us about it in advance – has become the attention grabber that it was intended to be. 

In a staged media rollout in recent weeks, the government unveiled new plans to “solve” the housing crisis, help renters, assist families struggling with soaring food bills and address mental health, as well as finally releasing an updated defence policy that comes with billions of new dollars in spending. 

None of those announcements addressed the big question we are asking at the Energy Future Forum (EFF): would Budget 2024 provide the clarity and certainty needed to advance the ongoing and necessary march to a net zero future by 2050?  

As EFF has said many times, there is a need for speed – we call it the “hurry-up offense” — if we are going to reach net zero. Canada requires a breathtaking buildout of its clean electricity grid, expanded development of wind and solar farms, carbon capture projects, carbon pipelines, small modular or large nuclear reactors, and storage capacity from utility-scale batteries to pumped hydro, among other things. 

The government teased some of its plans in this area in previous budgets and fiscal updates but had yet to fully flesh them out, depriving investors and project developers of the certainty they need to move forward. 

One of the most highly anticipated initiatives was previewed in last year’s federal budget when the government announced its intention to finally make good on a national Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program.  

The government delivered in Budget 2024 (p. 286), announcing $5 billion in loan guarantees to unlock access to capital for Indigenous communities. 

Chief Sharleen Gale, chair of the First Nations Major Projects Coalition and JP Gladu, principal of the Mokwateh Consultancy, were among the many Indigenous voices callingfor the measure: “An openness to Indigenous project ownership here is fast becoming a major international competitive advantage for Canada, as illustrated by a flood of deals happening across the country in the natural resource sectors.” 

Jaimie Lickers at CIBC wrote about the impediments that needed to be overcome and expanded upon that theme from the stage of the Public Policy Forum’s annual Growth Summit in Toronto last week.  

It has been difficult for Indigenous entities to access capital needed to play a big role in the economy, most notably because of “the prohibition under the Indian Act from leveraging ‘on-reserve’ lands and assets as security for debt,” Lickers notes. “This prevents First Nation governments and individuals from leveraging their lands as security for loans, limiting their ability to start businesses, invest in projects, and even secure traditional mortgages for their homes.”

Lickers, Gale and Gladu also advocated extending loan guarantees to oil and gas projects. Budget 2024 agreed, saying the program would be “sector-agnostic” and would prioritize “economic reconciliation and self-determination.” 

The next hurdle will, of course, mean getting the money out the door for this reconciliation opportunity sooner rather than later – always a challenge in Canada. 

In advance of Budget 2024, Electricity Canada, one of hundreds of groups to provide submissions to the Finance Department, exhorted the government to do more to streamline and strengthen federal regulatory capacity to “Build Things Faster.”  

The group relied on the PPF Project of the Century report to help them make the case for building out the electricity grid as soon as possible. 

“Canada has made aggressive commitments to achieve a net zero electricity grid by 2035 and an entirely net zero economy by 2050. To meet this monumental challenge, the Public Policy Forum estimates that we must grow our electricity supply capacity by 2.2 to 3.4 times today’s volume to meet demand by 2050,” Electricity Canada said in its pre-budget submission, quoting from the PPF report. 

(Curiously, Budget 2024 low-balled Canada’s future electricity grid needs, calling for an increase in capacity by 1.7 to 2.2 times the current level without changing the doubled electricity demand projection.) 

Budget 2024 acknowledged that Canada needs to do more to “get major projects” doneand announced a new Federal Permitting Coordinator to be housed in the Privy Council Office, calling for a five-year target to complete federal impact assessments and setting a three-year target for nuclear project reviews. This target-setting approach is strongly aligned with the first recommendation of EFF’s latest policy memo, which studies measures different countries are taking to ensure critical clean energy projects can move forward.

Budget 2024 re-committed to existing timelines for their rollout, but beyond a few tweaks the government offered few new details on its five previously announced Investment Tax Credits (ITC). The five ITCs are for Clean Technology; Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage; Clean Hydrogen; Clean Electricity; and Clean Technology Manufacturing. Budget 2024 added a sixth new one – an EV Supply Chain Investment Tax Credit that will apply to vehicle assembly, battery production and cathode active material production. 

It did offer a bit more clarity on Carbon Contracts for Difference (CCFDs) in an attempt to provide more certainty around carbon pricing to accelerate investment in decarbonization and clean growth technology. Budget 2024 said the Canada Growth Fund would offer “bespoke CCFDs and carbon offtake agreements” and “off-the-shelf contracts.”  

So, did Budget 2024 provide clarity and certainty on energy policy? The answer is a qualified yes, given the long-awaited Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program. But that was an exception in a document imbued with incrementalism and status quo. 

For a government fond of previewing its policies – whether through piecemeal rollouts in staged media events or aspirational budget announcements – it still has more work to do to bring those policies into sharper focus. 

MIKE BLANCHFIELD
Director, Energy Policy and Global Affairs
Published:  April 16, 2024