Prairie Premiers Ask Trudeau to ‘Immediately Retract’ Minister’s Remarks on Natural Resources Agreement

Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson answers a question as Canada’s premiers hold a press conference following a meeting on health care in Ottawa on Feb. 7, 2023. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

The three Prairie premiers have issued a joint statement demanding that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirm that his justice minister didn’t speak for the federal government when he told First Nations chiefs he would look into a request to rescind those provincial governments’ jurisdiction over natural resources.

The April 11 joint statement said Trudeau “needs to tell Canadians today that federal Justice Minister David Lametti 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 strip away their constitutional authority and control over natural resources.”

The three premiers said the agreements “recognized the Prairie provinces with the same rights over resources that all other provinces already had” and that these rights “have been fundamental to the people and the economic autonomy of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta for nearly 100 years.”

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks at a press conference in Edmonton on Oct. 24, 2022. Jason Franson/The Canadian Press

Scott Moe, premier of Saskatchewan, speaks at a press conference at the Legislative Building in Regina on March 18, 2020. Michael Bell/The Canadian Press

“The federal government cannot unilaterally change the Constitution. It should not even be considering stripping resource rights away from the three Prairie provinces,” said the joint statement of Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson, and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

“The prime minister needs to immediately retract these dangerous and divisive comments by his justice minister.”

In an April 11 social media post accompanying the joint statement, Smith said that “Ottawa must back off from any plans of stripping resource rights away from Albertans.”

Smith said she was joining with Moe and Stefanson to call on Trudeau “to denounce and retract the dangerous comments made by his Justice Minister.”

Jurisdiction

Lametti told the Assembly of First Nations Special Chiefs Assembly in Ottawa on April 5 that he would “commit to looking at” the 1930 natural resources transfer agreements in place with Sask., Manitoba, and Alberta after one indigenous chief called for the act to be rescinded and another said resources were given to the provinces without consulting with indigenous communities.

At the Ottawa meeting with the AFN, Grand Chief Brian Hardlotte from Prince Albert Grand Council asked Lametti to “rescind the act, the Natural Resource Transfer Act, that affects 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.”

Justice Minister David Lametti speaks during a Federal-Provincial-Territorial (FPT) Ministers press conference on bail reform in Ottawa, on March 10, 2023. Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press

Chief Don Maracle of Mohawks of Bay of Quinte said, “Canada exports 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 OK to do that, or what benefits the First Nations expect to receive by Canada consenting to that arrangement.”

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,” he added.

Provinces Respond

The justice minister’s comments prompted a swift response from Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on April 10. Moe called Lametti’s comments “outrageous and ill-informed” and said his province would be “relentless” in defending its jurisdiction and autonomy.

Smith said any attempt by the federal government to rescind the natural resources agreement “would pose an unprecedented risk to national unity” and called on Trudeau to “immediately have his Justice Minister retract and apologize for these comments.”

In a statement late in the evening on April 10, Lametti said that as the minister response for implementing the United Nations Declaration Act (UNDA) into federal laws and policies—referring to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (UNDRIP)—he met with First Nations leaders and was only listening to their comments.

“Amongst the many questions I was asked, the Natural Resources Transfer Act was raised by First Nations Chiefs on a couple of occasions,” Lametti wrote.

“It’s 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 justice minister stated.

Lametti said the focus of the federal government 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.”