Aboriginal Law - Resources Development - Legal And Practical Issues

May 2012 — Understanding Aboriginal law and Aboriginal issues is essential to the harmonious development of natural resources projects. Several recent court decisions have established the parameters and limits of Aboriginal rights.

INTRODUCTION

Aboriginal people are key stakeholders in resource development projects, especially on northern lands; Projects that might have an adverse effect on Aboriginal rights may give rise to a duty of the Crown to consult and to accom - modate Aboriginal people, which is enforceable by the courts; In any event, industrial promoters would be well advised to ensure that their projects are viewed as socially and environmentally acceptable by Aboriginal people, beyond legal or regulatory requirements; Understanding Aboriginal law, which involves complex questions of public and constitutional law among others, is therefore fundamental; ABORIGINAL PEOPLE OF THE PROVINCE OF QUÉBEC

Aboriginal people were the first inhabitants of Canada. The Province of Québec currently comprises 55 Aboriginal communities, divided among 11 Aboriginal nations, including 10 First Nations and the Inuit; On the territory of the Plan Nord, north of the 49th Parallel, there are the Cree, the Naskapi (near Schefferville), the Innus (or Montagnais, on the North Shore) and the Inuit (north of the 55th Parallel, essentially); ABORIGINAL RIGHTS – GENERAL CONCEPTS

The Aboriginal people of Canada were never conquered by colonial powers. Consequently, they maintain ancestral rights that result from their occupancy and historical use of their tribal lands; Ancestral rights, the intensity of which varies based on their degree of connection with the land, include Aboriginal titles and the rights to customs, practices and traditions forming an integral part of the distinct culture of the Aboriginal group; Aboriginal rights also include rights under treaties entered into between the Crown and the Aboriginal people; Aboriginal rights are constitutionally protected, which means that ancestral or treaty rights may not be unilaterally modified or extinguished by legislation – Sections 25 and 35(1) of The Constitution Act, 1982; Litigation in connection with the development of James Bay paved the way for the signature, in 1975, by the Cree, the Inuit, the Governments of Québec and Canada and Hydro- Québec, of the James Bay and Northern Québec Agreement. The Naskapi of the Schefferville region signed the Northeastern Québec Agreement in 1978; The James Bay and Northern Québec Agreement and the Northeastern Québec Agreement are legally treaties signed between Aboriginal nations and the Crown and are hence constitutionally...