Calgary & Alberta Economy

[darwink]

Why? The project is on private land so no duty to consume should exist

The obligation of the crown to study whether treaty rights may be impacted and so they can decide whether there is a duty to consult (and to what degree) applies on private land as well. Usually it is covered off on simple projects by providing notice accompanying a project description, and providing a period where Indigenous peoples and nations can express concern if any. More complicated projects you do that too, but you also jump straight to study, especially if the study is needed anyways for environmental reasons. Without a study, for all we know some endangered or otherwise protected bird uses the wetlands/sloughs on its migration path, and at minimum offsetting investments in habitat protection will be required.

 

[DougB]

That is ridiculous. Requiring consultation on public land is insane enough. The government should be spending whatever it takes sending reference cases to the Supreme Court to narrow consultation as much as possible and to formalize the requirements.

I don't care if I get cancelled but I absolutely oppose Indigenous rights as I do all group rights. A society founded on equality of individuals cannot award extraordinary rights to groups.

The obligation of the crown to study whether treaty rights may be impacted and so they can decide whether there is a duty to consult (and to what degree) applies on private land as well. Usually it is covered off on simple projects by providing notice accompanying a project description, and providing a period where Indigenous peoples and nations can express concern if any. More complicated projects you do that too, but you also jump straight to study, especially if the study is needed anyways for environmental reasons. Without a study, for all we know some endangered or otherwise protected bird uses the wetlands/sloughs on its migration path, and at minimum offsetting investments in habitat protection will be requi

 

[darwink]

So what is the test? Is it any project that proposes a rail spur or is it any project that could increase mainline traffic? Seems ridiculous to mandate anything beyond local approvals

If it requires a federal regulator to approve it, its federal. Now, the federal body in the case of lets say, Calgary-Edmonton high speed rail, could say that the vast majority of impacts are local, and defer most matters to a provincial process. But there will be a federal process to decide that, and retain decision making on federal matters. (The feds did defer on natural gas pipelines and LNG facilities in BC for example, even though there may be incidental interconnection between the BC projects and NGTL in NE BC, and having it regulated by BC was upheld by the courts)

If that wasn't the case, lets say the province hated that the rail line between Calgary and Edmonton existed and tried to shut it down from 1 km of its connection points to the mainline in Calgary. You probably don't want that to happen.

 

[darwink]

That is ridiculous. Requiring consultation on public land is insane enough. The government should be spending whatever it takes sending reference cases to the Supreme Court to narrow consultation as much as possible and to formalize the requirements.

I don't care if I get cancelled but I absolutely oppose Indigenous rights as I do all group rights. A society founded on equality of individuals cannot award extraordinary rights to groups.

The requirements have been formalized quite a bit through litigation. It is a very different world than the wild west of 20 years ago where there were wildly different interpretations floating around.

As for the second, the crown 'bought' the land from Indigenous peoples via treaties that contained perpetual obligations as our 'payment'. If have a problem with that framework, you can take it up with King George the III, but you'll need a time machine to 1763. The proclamation is foundational to Canada, and enabled the crown to acquire and protect from invasion (and kick the French out!) much of Canada in partnership with Indigenous allies. The proclamation was also a contributing factor to the american colonies agitating for independence.