Federal justice minister denies saying what he clearly said on natural resources, Prairie premiers release joint statement

Brian Zinchuk

Brian Zinchuk is editor and owner of Pipeline Online

Statement released by Justice Minister and Attorney General David Lametti on April 10. Twitter

OTTAWA, REGINA, WINNIPEG, EDMONTON – The dustup over provincial control of natural resources continued into April 11, with the federal Justice Minister and Attorney General David Lametti putting out a statement denying he said what he clearly said, and the three Prairie premiers issuing a statement in response.

The evening of April 10, Lametti issued the following statement via Twitter, with emphasis added by Pipeline Online:

“I am the Minister responsible for the implementation of the United Nations Declaration Act (UNDA) into federal laws and policies. Last week I met with First Nations leaders to discuss its implementation as part of a session of the AFN-SCA that was focused exclusively on the UNDA. Amongst the many questions I was asked, the Natural Resources Transfer Act was raised by First Nations Chiefs on a couple of occasions. It is part of my job to listen to those concerns. To be clear, at no point did I commit our government to reviewing areas of provincial jurisdiction, including that over natural resources. The focus of our Government’s work is to co-develop an action plan with Indigenous partners that will show the path we must take towards aligning federal laws and policies with UNDRIP.”

CPAC recorded the interchange. It can be found here, starting around the 42 minute mark https://www.cpac.ca/episode?id=3a22d1b8-f939-4792-ab6e-e0fc4fc89f62

During a panel at the Assembly of First Nations Special Chiefs Assembly, in Ottawa on April 5, Justice Minister David Lametti was asked by two people about provincial jurisdiction over natural resources. Grand Chief Brian Hardlotte from Prince Albert Grand Council asked Lametti to “rescind the act, The Natural Resource Transfer Act, that affect the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. That’s what we’re asking you, minister as an action item with a statement. It affects our treaty rights, of course, under the Sask First Act, that we hear about. And it’s to do with natural resources. Indian natural resources.”

Chief Don Maracle of Mohawks of Bay of Quinte said, “Canada exporters natural resources to other countries. They earn trillions of dollars in revenues from those resources. Those resources were given to the provinces, without ever asking one Indian if it was okay to do that, or what benefits the First Nations expect to receive by Canada consenting to that arrangement.”

• 0067 PFM SaskWorks Payroll Investment Plan
  0067 PFM SaskWorks Payroll Investment Plan
• 0066 WBPC Promo video 30 seconds
  0066 WBPC Promo video 30 seconds
• 0065 Anova Resources field operator Oxbow
  0065 Anova Resources field operator Oxbow
• 0064 Estevan OTS
  0064 Estevan OTS
• 0063 Turnbull Excavating hiring crusher
  0063 Turnbull Excavating hiring crusher
• 0062 TED_EPAC_Technology_30
  0062 TED_EPAC_Technology_30
• 0061 SIMSA 2024 For Sask Buy Sask
  0061 SIMSA 2024 For Sask Buy Sask
• 0060 Arizona Lithium Lease building
  0060 Arizona Lithium Lease building
• 0059 Southeast College Heavy Equipment Operator
  0059 Southeast College Heavy Equipment Operator
• 0058 Royal Helium Steveville opens anonymous rocket
  0058 Royal Helium Steveville opens anonymous rocket
• 0055 Smart Power Be Smart with your Power office
  0055 Smart Power Be Smart with your Power office
• 0053 Kingston Midstream Westspur Alameda Click Before You Dig large text
  0053 Kingston Midstream Westspur Alameda Click Before You Dig large text
• 0052 Predator Inspections
  0052 Predator Inspections
• 0051 JML Hiring Pumpjack assembly
  0051 JML Hiring Pumpjack assembly
• 0049 Scotsburn Dental soft guitar
  0049 Scotsburn Dental soft guitar
• 0046 City of Estevan This is Estevan
  0046 City of Estevan This is Estevan
• 0041 DEEP Since 2018 now we are going to build
  0041 DEEP Since 2018 now we are going to build
• 0032 IWS Summer hiring rock trailer music
• 0022 Grimes winter hiring
• 0021 OSY Rentals S8 Promo
• 0018 IWS Hiring Royal Summer
• 0015 Latus Viro
  0015 Latus Viro
• 0013 Panther Drilling PO ad 03 top drive rigs
• 0011
• 0006 JK Junior
• 0002 gilliss casing services
  0002 gilliss casing services
• 9002 Pipeline Online 30 sec EBEX
  9002 Pipeline Online 30 sec EBEX
• 9001

Premiers respond, call for retraction

In response, Lametti said, “I take from Chief Brian and Chief Don Maracle the point about the Natural Resources Transfer Agreement … You’re on the record for that. I obviously can’t pronounce on that right now. But I do commit to looking at that.

“It won’t be uncontroversial, is the only think I would say, with a bit of a smile,” Lametti said.

A little after noon on April 11, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, and Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson put out the following statement:

“The Prime Minister needs to tell Canadians today that his Justice Minister was not speaking on behalf of the federal government when he said he would look at rescinding the 1930 Natural Resources Transfer Agreements with the prairie provinces and stripping away their constitutional authority and control over natural resources.​

“These agreements recognized that the prairie provinces have the same rights over resources that all of the other provinces already had. Those rights have been fundamental to the people and the economic autonomy of Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba for nearly 100 years.​

“The federal government cannot unilaterally change the constitution. They should not even be considering stripping resource rights away from the three prairie provinces.​

“The Prime Minister needs to immediately retract these dangerous and divisive comments by his Justice Minister.”

Speaking to John Gormley on CJME/CKOM the morning of April 11, Moe said, “Where does that leave us? One, he either didn’t understand that, so he’s incompetent, or two, he’s actually being deceitful with the chiefs that asked the question by not providing them with the one and only answer he has available to him,” Moe said.

“I find this very disappointing. Any comments like that I find tremendously troubling.”

Natural resources revenue in Saskatchewan will account for $3.3 billion of this year’s $19.6 billion budget. Put in context, that’s equivalent of 82 per cent of all spending by the Ministry of Education.

Moe’s initial tweet about this issue had been viewed 1.6 million times in 24 hours, and 1.7 million within 26 hours. There are only 1.2 million people in Saskatchewan.

Smith was asked about this, and here’s her response on video:

.

• 0067 PFM SaskWorks Payroll Investment Plan
  0067 PFM SaskWorks Payroll Investment Plan
• 0066 WBPC Promo video 30 seconds
  0066 WBPC Promo video 30 seconds
• 0065 Anova Resources field operator Oxbow
  0065 Anova Resources field operator Oxbow
• 0064 Estevan OTS
  0064 Estevan OTS
• 0063 Turnbull Excavating hiring crusher
  0063 Turnbull Excavating hiring crusher
• 0062 TED_EPAC_Technology_30
  0062 TED_EPAC_Technology_30
• 0061 SIMSA 2024 For Sask Buy Sask
  0061 SIMSA 2024 For Sask Buy Sask
• 0060 Arizona Lithium Lease building
  0060 Arizona Lithium Lease building
• 0059 Southeast College Heavy Equipment Operator
  0059 Southeast College Heavy Equipment Operator
• 0058 Royal Helium Steveville opens anonymous rocket
  0058 Royal Helium Steveville opens anonymous rocket
• 0055 Smart Power Be Smart with your Power office
  0055 Smart Power Be Smart with your Power office
• 0053 Kingston Midstream Westspur Alameda Click Before You Dig large text
  0053 Kingston Midstream Westspur Alameda Click Before You Dig large text
• 0052 Predator Inspections
  0052 Predator Inspections
• 0051 JML Hiring Pumpjack assembly
  0051 JML Hiring Pumpjack assembly
• 0049 Scotsburn Dental soft guitar
  0049 Scotsburn Dental soft guitar
• 0046 City of Estevan This is Estevan
  0046 City of Estevan This is Estevan
• 0041 DEEP Since 2018 now we are going to build
  0041 DEEP Since 2018 now we are going to build
• 0032 IWS Summer hiring rock trailer music
• 0022 Grimes winter hiring
• 0021 OSY Rentals S8 Promo
• 0018 IWS Hiring Royal Summer
• 0015 Latus Viro
  0015 Latus Viro
• 0013 Panther Drilling PO ad 03 top drive rigs
• 0011
• 0006 JK Junior
• 0002 gilliss casing services
  0002 gilliss casing services
• 9002 Pipeline Online 30 sec EBEX
  9002 Pipeline Online 30 sec EBEX
• 9001