Climate Change, Water, and Transportation Focus of Environment Team’s Work

NWAC’s environment team has had a busy end to summer and start to fall with initiatives on climate change, water, transportation, and the environment.

The team recently concluded a major online survey to discover how climate change is affecting Indigenous women in Canada. In total, 724 Indigenous women from across Canada responded. Indigenous women told us they are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change than non-Indigenous people and men, due to their spiritual connection to the land, their responsibilities as household managers and keepers of culture, and poverty and financial challenges. They also told us they’re very worried about the various impacts of climate change, especially droughts and wildfires. Despite this worry, most respondents said their communities are not involved in any climate-related activities, and that the biggest need for support is, by far, more education and awareness on how climate change affects their communities. We heard that the most common tools to fight climate change are education and awareness, which needs to happen through different social media channels based on age groups.

NWAC is currently conducting a very interesting project involving an Indigenous Knowledge Framework with Transport Canada. This new framework requires that Indigenous knowledge be considered in project reviews and regulatory decisions touching the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, the Canada Energy Regulator, the Fish and Fish Habitat Protection Program at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and Transport Canada. In this context, NWAC will be engaging Indigenous women, Two-Spirited, and gender-diverse people to discuss concrete recommendations for how to put the Indigenous Knowledge Framework into action.

The team is planning a virtual engagement session in October on Travelling Our Waters: Indigenous Women’s Voices on the Navigable Waters Act. Following this session, NWAC will develop a report and recommendations for the federal government to ensure that the voices of Indigenous women and gender-diverse people are included in the implementation of the Navigable Waters Act. In 2019, the Canadian Navigable Waters Act was revised to strengthen environmental protection and to make sure Indigenous people are notified and have input on projects that can block their water travel, such as bridges, pipelines, dams, mines, and docks.