Climate Change, Water, and Transportation

NWAC’s Environment team has had a busy start to the fall with initiatives on climate change, water, and transportation. We also welcomed two new team members!

We are currently working with Transport Canada on two projects about the Canadian Navigable Waters Act (CNWA) and Indigenous Knowledge Frameworks (IKF).

In 2019, the CNWA was revised to strengthen environmental protection and to ensure that Indigenous people are notified and have input on projects that can block water travel. However, the 2019 changes did not include any mention of Indigenous women and gender-diverse people, who play significant roles in their communities as water keepers and protectors. To understand the unique knowledge, experiences, and perspectives of Indigenous women and gender-diverse people regarding the CNWA, our team held a virtual engagement session, Travelling Our Waters: Indigenous Women’s Voices on the Navigable Waters Act, with 16 Indigenous women and gender-diverse people. We also conduced seven one-on-one interviews in October on the same topic.

These engagement sessions revealed that Indigenous women and gender-diverse people do not have a strong understanding of the CNWA and how it affects their rights to water. The sessions also identified that the decrease of stream flow of waterways due to climate change is infringing on Indigenous rights. A final concern that the participants in the sessions noted is the listing of waterways in the Canadian Navigable Waters Act schedules.

The next step for this project is a National Expert Engagement Symposium, which is scheduled for December 6, 2021. Following the symposium, NWAC will develop a report for Transport Canada that contains recommendations on how the knowledge and perspective of Indigenous women and gender-diverse people can be reflected in the CNWA.

The other project funded by Transport Canada is examining how Indigenous women and gender-diverse people’s perspectives and knowledge can be included in Transport Canada’s IKF. Under new changes to government legislation, Indigenous knowledge must be considered in project reviews and regulatory decisions made by 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. Our team engaged with Indigenous women, gender-diverse, and Two-Spirit people in three virtual engagement sessions and one-on-one-interviews to discuss concrete recommendations on how the Indigenous Knowledge Framework can be implemented and what factors need to be considered.

The engagement sessions and interviews revealed that any framework must be rooted in Indigenous culture, tradition, and protocol and that any Indigenous knowledge that is shared must be respected by those receiving. Importantly, participants in the engagement sessions and the interviews noted that the protocols to share that knowledge must be based on each individual indigenous community. A final concern that was expressed to our team in these sessions is that traditional Indigenous knowledge should not be shared with the government and not implemented.

The next step of this project is a National Expert Engagement Symposium, which is scheduled for December 13, 2021. Following this symposium, NWAC will produce a report and recommendations for Transport Canada that outlines considerations for implementing the IKF.

As a part of an ongoing project, the Environment Team is continuing to support the four Provincial and Territorial Member Associations (PTMAs) that are conducting an environmental Climate Change Survey project at the regional and grassroots level. In the upcoming months, our team will host three engagement sessions with Indigenous women and write a 20-page research paper on key issues related to climate change, conservation, and biodiversity.

The last project is for the Department of Oceans and Fisheries (DFO) on how provisions included in the Fish and Fish Habitat Program (FFHP) affect Indigenous women and gender-diverse people. In the upcoming months, we will be conducting engagement sessions and will produce a report for the DFO with the findings and recommendations garnered from the sessions. We are also working on some exciting developments for the FFHP online portal, which provides accessible language notice summaries on FFHP provisions and invites feedback from Indigenous women and gender-diverse people. Stay tuned for the FFHP portal updates!