Author ORCID Identifier

Dayna Nadine Scott: 0000-0003-3992-8642

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2023

Source Publication

Dayna Nadine Scott, Jennifer Sankey & Laura Tanguay (eds.) Operationalizing Indigenous-led Impact Assessment

Publisher

Impact Assessment Agency of Canada

Abstract

Recent years have ushered in an explosion of interest and expertise in place-based, Indigenous-led impact assessment models. Across Canada and beyond, Indigenous communities have been developing and engaging with alternative approaches to “environmental assessment” (EA) or “impact assessment” (IA) in response to proposed developments in their homelands. These efforts are borne out of deep dissatisfaction and frustration; Indigenous peoples have repeatedly pointed to the inability of settler law on EA to protect their constitutionally recognized Aboriginal and Treaty rights, and to meaningfully engage with Indigenous laws, values, and perspectives regarding the socio-ecological risks posed by resource development projects. The inability of EA under settler law to adequately consider Indigenous legal orders and jurisdictions has been well documented. As Coast Salish legal scholar Sarah Morales notes, “[m]ost Canadian Indigenous groups have not had a meaningful voice in impact assessment,” and “rarely has any Indigenous group been able to exercise consent or decision making on major resource development projects.” More often, when Indigenous groups participate in government regulatory processes, “other parties severely limit their involvement, requesting only baseline traditional knowledge and traditional use information, without any meaningful input into or control over the process or project itself.” The result is that “Indigenous culture, spirituality, laws and legal processes, rights and title have not been taken into account in the Crown-led and proponent-driven Canadian environmental assessment processes.”

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