804: Duty to Consult: A Conversation in Contrasts

October 06, 2016

3:15pm - 4:15pm

This introductory session will explore the frontline of consultation.  Planners will be able to contrast their own understanding of this skill with the experience of First Nation and Métis officials responsible for consultation.  It will focus on the practical issues that arise in the day-to-day relationship between Indigenous communities and their municipal neighbours.  The session will be a facilitated conversation designed to elaborate not simply the more mundane issues of procedure & process, but also the larger issues of perspective & respect.  There will also be a Question & Answer segment with the audience.

Land is a fundamental concept.  It is one of the main things that planners and Native peoples share.  But a professional interest usually implies a pursuit of gain, while that of Aboriginal communities implies cultural identification.  Typical practice fostered by conventional constitutional interpretation has allowed planners to ignore that they are planning for land that belongs to someone else.  Over 25 years ago the courts began insisting on a more authentic constitutional approach by reminding the Crown of its “Duty to Consult”.  Slowly this has been filtered through all levels of government, and been reinforced by the Provincial Policy Statement 2014, the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission 2015, and Canada’s final acceptance of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2016.

Speakers