GST HST on carbon price could raise billions over next seven years: budget watchdog
By Mia Rabson THE CANADIAN PRESS OTTAWA-The federal government’s carbon price could generate more than $5 billion from the federal sales tax over the next seven years, but none of that is directly earmarked for climate programs. The latest figures come from the parliamentary budget officer, based on a private member’s bill introduced last fall by Conservative MP Alex Ruff to eliminate the sales tax from carbon pricing completely. The revenues from the carbon price itself are required by law to be returned to households and businesses through rebates and granting programs. But that does not apply to the sales tax, which is collected on top of the carbon price. The PBO estimates that will be worth about $600 million in 2024-25, rising to $1 billion by 2030-31 in parallel...
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First Nations Leadership Council: Opposition derailed proposed BC Land Act amendments
British Columbia’s First Nations Leadership Council is expressing extreme disappointment over the provincial government’s decision to drop planned amendments to the Land Act that would have cleared the way for a shared decision-making process with First Nations when it comes to the use of public land. The N-D-P government announced it had decided not to proceed with proposed amendments after holding a series of meetings with stakeholders, citing a need to further engage with people and demonstrate the real benefits of shared decision-making in action. Earlier this month, B.C. United Leader Kevin Falcon said his party could not “support giving veto power to five per cent of the population with impacts to over 95 per cent of public land,” referring to First Nations* people. In a Wednesday evening statement, Grand...
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Treaty One Nations shocked they weren’t notified when raw sewage spilled into Red River
By Shari Narine Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Treaty One Nations are still waiting for a response from the Manitoba government and Winnipeg city council about why impacted First Nations were not notified when wastewater from the city leaked into the Red River on two separate occasions. Treaty One Nations Chairperson Gordon BlueSky, chief of Brokenhead Ojibway Nation, says he only found out last week when the news reported that more than 135 million litres of untreated sewage had spilled into the Red River since Feb. 7. It was also at that time that he found out there had been an initial wastewater spill in November 2023. “What’s their notification process? Because I never received anything and I’m potentially the most impacted community seeing that the water literally goes by my...
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Ontario iGaming hearings in continue through tomorrow
By Marc Lalonde Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Lawyers representing the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake made their case Tuesday morning in Ontario Superior Court against a new law that permits online gambling in that province. The MCK chief on hand in Toronto to observe said there will be more to report after lawyers from the Ontario provincial government made their case yesterday. Hearings are expected to wrap up today, said MCK Chief Tonya Perron. “There isn’t much to say right now,” Perron said Tuesday evening after the first day of hearings. “We’ll know more on Friday after everything is finished.” The MCK’s lawyers were challenging the legality and constitutionality of Ontario’s move to allow online gaming, primarily because the government is not conducting and managing gaming itself. Lawyers from Olthuis Kleer...
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Economic reconciliation roundtable draws heavy hitters to Ottawa
By Marc Lalonde Local Journalism Initiative Reporter The federal government must remove barriers to economic activity and facilitate economic development in Indigenous communities, an `economic reconciliation’ roundtable concluded last week in Ottawa. Additionally, participants added, they also identified the need to develop capacity and Indigenous financial expertise as critical ingredients to achieving economic reconciliation. They saw “the great value to coming together and will seek future opportunities to convene and continue to work together to remove barriers,” participants said. The roundtable included such economic heavy hitters as First Nations Financial Management Board Executive Chair Harold Calla; First Nations Finance Authority President and CEO Ernie Daniels; First Nations Major Projects Coalition CEO Niilo Edwards and National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association (NACCA) CEO Shannin Metatawabin. Political leaders such as Metis National Council...
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Coast Salish First Nations energy sovereignty gets funding boost
By Sidney Coles Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Climate change impacts Indigenous communities disproportionately in this province. “Indigenous Peoples are on the frontlines of the climate crisis_they are disproportionately feeling the impacts of climate change in their communities, and they are taking real and ambitious action to drive down emissions and keep our air clean,” said Gary Anandasangaree, minister of crown-Indigenous relations. First Nations communities on Vancouver Island are leading clean-energy projects with BC government funding to empower community members with access to more efficient and sustainable sources of energy. Indigenous Peoples are also seeking ways to shift from fossil fuels to green energy and that means getting equitable and fair access to green technologies. Currently, 46 First Nations benefit from 71 clean-energy revenue-sharing agreements with BC. As of last week,...
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MPs maintain Ottawa will continue to invest in roads
By Kevin Jeffrey Local Journalism Initiative Reporter THUNDER BAY- The governing Liberals are doing their best to maintain that investments in road construction will continue. Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has been trying to cool the temperature after he was quoted as saying the federal government had “made the decision to stop investing in new road infrastructure.” Guilbeault reportedly made the remark in a public transit conference in Montreal on Monday. Thunder Bay-Superior North member of Parliament Patty Hajdu stressed that she has always had her eye on ensuring roads are safe and that there is road access to some of the more difficult areas to get to. “In the riding we have invested at least $80 million in the twinning of the highway, something that constituents will tell you all...
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Protest after Fort Simpson parents allege teacher struck child
By Aastha Sethi Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Dylan Kakfwi, the eight-year-old’s father, said the Northwest Territories village school told the family a teacher had “backhanded” his son. Kakfwi and his partner say their son, who is non-verbal and has autism, pointed at his chest and signalled he was hurt. Following the incident, Kakfwi says he took his son to the health centre for a checkup. There were no visible bruises on his body. Kakfwi said surveillance video of the incident from January 22 shows his son falling to the ground and staying there for close to 40 seconds, though the alleged incident before the boy falls cannot be seen. The teacher, Kakfwi said, “just walked past my son in the video.” After the incident, Kakfwi said the teacher wasn’t at...
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NLL’s New York team to move to Ottawa and be renamed Black Bears starting next season
Ottawa has a new professional sports team coming to town. The National Lacrosse League is returning to the nation’s capital, with the New York Riptide moving north of the border starting next season. The team will be named the Ottawa Black Bears and will play out of the Canadian Tire Centre, home of the NHL’s Senators. NLL Commissioner Brett Frood made the announcement Wednesday. New York is seventh among 15 NLL teams this season with a 5-5 record. The Black Bears will be the sixth Canadian team in the league, joining Toronto, Vancouver, Halifax, Saskatchewan and Calgary. The Ottawa Rebel played in the NLL from 2001 to 2003 before becoming inactive. The franchise moved to Edmonton in 2005 and currently plays in Saskatoon....
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Six Nations holds Memorial Walk for murdered and missing
By Lisa Iesse Writer Children and men lead a march for the third annual MMIWGMB2S+ Valentine’s Day Memorial Walk in downtown Ohsweken. Community members from across Six Nations, Mississaugas of the Credit (MSFN) and surrounding areas gather for the annual march in honour of the Missing and Murdered. After the Thanksgiving Address children and men from the community sounded the call for change with women and Two-Spirit persons, singing a Warrior song. The streets swim with marchers dressed from head to toe in red and rainbow colors, in ribbon skirts, shirts and jackets. They move quickly from Ganohkwasra down Chiefswood Road to 4th Line, to the centre of Ohsweken, and into Veterans Park. In Veteran’s Memorial Park, the hands of community members continue to hold up framed photographs and images...
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The Chapel Royal of the Mohawks has its own Coat of Arms
By Lynda Powless Editor It will no longer be the Royal Chapel of the Mohawks. The celebrated and noted chapel along the Grand River will soon become the Chapel Royal of the Mohawks and be adorned with its own Royal Coat of Arms. Thanks to the inquisitive nature of Barry Hill, chairman of the Six Nations Royal Chapel of the Mohawks board the chapel will be switching names and displaying its own Royal Coat of Arms. The coat of arms, the ony one of its kind, will depict a pine tree representing the Haudenosaunee Great Tree of Peace and its all going to happen in a big affair being planned for Sept., 29th. “Yes, we are working to make it a big thing,” Hill joked while explaining the Six Nations...
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CMHC attempting to download programs without consulting
Six Nations may find itself administering programs previously run by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) soon…but without the funds. In a report to Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) meeting Feb., 13th councillor Helen Miller, who sits on the Chief’s of Ontario Committee on Housing and Infrastructure meeting said she and the committee were “blindsided” by the transfer of six CMHC On-Reserve Residential Rehabilitation Assistance Program (RRAP) programs to First Nations Housing Departments across Canada. “We were kind of blindsided, I guess you could say,” she said. “This is a big thing,everyone on the committee should have been told.” Miller said she later found out that Six Nations Housing knew about the transfer and that 100 per cent of the funding for those six programs is also being transferred,...
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SN Elected Council seeking public help in dumping incident
Illegal dumping continues on Six Nations and Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) is asking the community to help find the culprit. Six Nations Elected Chief Sherri Lyn Hill says a large quantity of construction material and an animal carcass was dumped near the Oneida Business Park and she believes it came from off-reserve. “We don’t know how long ago this dumping occurred, but we’re confident the waste is coming from off-reserve as there are currently no large construction projects taking place that would produce this amount of waste,” she said. Hill announced the illegal dumping during the Chief’s update at the General Council meeting on February 13 and said the large amount of material was found on the Oneida Business Park’s property on February 9, but they don’t know exactly...
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Rare solar eclipse coming, students will be off school
All Six Nations and area schools will be closed for the coming rare total solar eclipse. Six Nations schools will be closed for the day along with other school boards, including the Grand Erie District School Board (GEDSB) and Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District School Board (BHNCDSB). Students will be home when the partial solar eclipses and lunar eclipses happen April 8th. NASA’s website says partial solar eclipses and lunar eclipses are not unusual. They happen a few times a year, but a total solar eclipse is rare. A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon is between the earth and sun. A BHNCDSB statement says their schools will be closed for safety. “We understand that this change might cause some inconvenience; however, this decision is in the best interest...
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Federal Additions to Reserve policy changing, time for Six Nations to have own system to add lands
The federal government is ramping up its timeline for changes to the Additions to Reserve Process. Councillor Helen Miller is once again urging Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) to consider creating its own system for adding land to the reserve to ensure lands purchased don’t go back into the federal government’s coffers. “We get it back to give it to the federal government,” she said. “Why would we go buy land and give it back to the federal government? We don’t even own it.” Miller attended a meeting with Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) recently and gave a report to council at the general Council meeting on February 13 and said she believes Six Nations needs to begin the process of setting up it’s own land registry system to circumnavigate ISC’s...
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Six Nations Police violent crime stats show increase
By Lisa Iesse Writer Six Nations Police (SNP) 2023 crime stats show violent crimes are on the increase. Police stats show assaults alone increased from 142 in 2022 to 154 last year but more poignantly the amount of charges skyrocketted from 27 charges in 2022 to 138 assault assault charges in 2023 that’s an increase of 91 charges. Data collected in 2022 and 2023 by SNP show an increase in calls for service to police and an increase in charges for violent crimes. In 2022 SNP received 4722 calls for service but in 2023 the number of calls for service jumped to 5,215, confirmed Jamie Smith of SNP. So far this year (2024) SNP has received about 600 calls for service, added Smith. Early figures for 2023 released by SNP...
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MCFN remember the lives of those lost to violence
By Lisa Iesse Writer MISSISSAUGAS OF THE CREDIT FIRST NATION – Trailblazers of the MMIWG2SBM movement sound the call for justice as they celebrate the lives of Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit persons, boys and men taken far too soon. By the podium inside the Mississaugas of the Credit (MCFN) community centre stand photos of mothers, daughters, sisters, and aunties. There’s Patricia Carpenter, Elaine LaForme and a young woman named Diane holding her newborn baby. Patricia Carpenter’s family, who are from the Alderville First Nation, join Elaine LaForme’s family and the MCFN community. “My grandmother tirelessly dedicated her life to advocacy and bringing awareness to Missing and Murdered Indigenous girls and women and also thus went on to include boys and Two-Spirit persons,” Shauna Kechego-Nichols, who is Patricia Carpenter’s niece, tells...
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Six Nations Police on the frontline
Six Nation’s Police annual report has hit the streets and with it comes, not an unexpected result, but a frightening one. Crime is not just on the increase, but violent crime is. First Nation communities are no stranger to violent crime. Statistics have shown us that. We know Indigenous people, in particular women, are more likely to be victims of crime . And for the first time the horror of a mass murder entered a First Nations community with the greatest single loss of life on September 4, 2022, when Myles Sanderson killed 11 and injured 18 people in a mass stabbing at 13 locations on the James Smith Cree Nation and in Weldon, Saskatchewan, Canada. A loss that has affected communities nation wide spurring leaders to revisit their own...
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Weekly Cartoon
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Grand River Attack prepping for new season with some new opponents
By Sam Laskaris Writer The brass of the Grand River Attack is busily making plans for what it hopes will be a successful 2024 campaign. It remains to be seen how the Attack, traditionally a powerhouse in the Women’s Major Series Lacrosse (WMSL), will fare in its upcoming season. But members of the local squad know they will be facing some new opponents this year. WMSL officials announced on Monday that the league has expanded and will feature two new entrants this year, the Kingston Cannons and the Peterborough Lakers. Nine clubs had participated in the WMSL season in 2023. But it has yet to be determined whether the circuit will include 11 or 12 teams this year. The Toronto Stars, who dropped out of the loop prior to the...
