PQ Premier Jacques Parizeau has reiterated a promise in his party’s platform offering natives royalties from the development of natural resources on their lands.
“Do we start discussing royalties on natural resources with them?” Parizeau asked during a live TV call-in show on Oct. 3. “Of course. Why don’t we start opening up?”
Parizeau said the laws on mineral rights vary in different parts of the province. People living south of the St-Lawrence River own the rights to resources found on their properties, while in the North, the Crown owns the rights to resources.
The new Premier hinted that he would be willing to change these rules, saying “it’s not written in the New Testament.”
Parizeau also said First Nations can’t leave an independent Quebec, but he added that Quebec must find a way to live in harmony with natives.
“We have to determine how we will head toward (native) self-determination. We are just beginning discussions with the natives. We should give ourselves the time to advance with one objective—to translate what it means to be ‘distinct nations.'”
Parizeau’s statements met with mixed reactions from First Nations leaders.
“I don’t know if it goes far enough,” said Ghislain Picard, regional Chief of the Assembly of First Nations for Quebec and Labrador.
“I know the expectations of natives. They have a big interest in holding title (to the land),” he said in a Gazette article.
Deputy Grand Chief Kenny Blacksmith told The Nation that First Nations people are cautious about Parizeau’s offer. But he also described the Premier’s statements as “a positive approach to dealing with historical problems.”
He said it’s about time First Nations benefitted from development and had a say in resource exploitation to ensure it doesn’t harm the native way of life.
“In time, there will be a need for job-creation, but in a way that we don’t rape the land. There are ways of doing it,” Chief Blacksmith said.
“I don’t know why we never had access to royalties in the past. It would have been a different situation in the Cree communities if we had access to royalties.”
Chief Blacksmith said Crees are open to working with the new PQ government, elected on Sept. 12.
“I think Crees generally respect and want to work with any party that is in power. We hope that when there is a change, it is a change for the better.”
In another development, David Cliche, Parizeau’s parliamentary secretary on native affairs, told the Montreal daily Le Devoir that the PQ is offering natives a “new deal.” Part of this deal would be royalties and working out self-government agreements with each First Nation. Quebec also wants to abolish some Band Councils and replace them with regional-level governments elected by both natives and non-natives living in those territories.
For more on Cliche’s proposals. see News, page 19.
