Bob Rae will be the voice of Matawa First Nations when consulting with the province on future developments in the Ring of Fire area.
It was announced Friday afternoon that the former federal Liberal Party Leader, who was also once Ontario’s NDP premier, will be the chief negotiator for Matawa during regional strategy negotiations with the province.
“There have been issues in the past about decisions that have been made without fully consulting with First Nations. Everybody recognizes the tremendous potential for development but we’ve also got to make sure the development is to the benefit of everyone in the whole community,” Rae said at the Victoria Inn Friday
.
Rae said his mandate is to deal with the province on development needs and not just mining projects, but a broad range of infrastructure needs like hydro, broadband, roads and the environmental assessment process.
Aside from the physical infrastructure, there are also social issues that need to be addressed.
“If we have big problems with drug addiction and big problems with health care and big problems with education, then people are not going to be able to take full advantage of opportunities that development poses,” said Rae.
“This isn’t about one project.”
Rae’s first task is visiting the nine communities within Matawa and finding out what the concerns and needs are in each one.
He’ll know if he’s been successful at the end of the process if the First Nations are in a stronger economic position to take advantage of the development that occurs.
“I would hope very much the social conditions of the people are improved to a point where individuals are going to be able to take advantage of the development as we go forward,” he said.
Webequie First Nations Chief Cornelius Wabasse said the chiefs felt Rae would be a good candidate to work with and his past experience in politics would be an asset.
“He’s been with the government and he has more access to resources, to people or contacts that he can utilize so it’s easier for us to channel through him,” Wabasse said.
Rae’s role will be to work closely with the chiefs and communities and to take advice from them, said Wabasse.
“We hope that he talks to the province about our community needs, what our aspirations are and that’s why we want him to visit our communities – to find out what our needs are, what we want and how we want to participate in major development in our area,” the chief said.
Matawa Chiefs Council also met with Greenstone officials Friday to work towards signing a memorandum of understanding to ensure both areas benefit from future development.
While Matawa has Rae negotiating for them, Greenstone has hired former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Ovide Mercredi as an advisor for negotiating with First Nations.
Mercredi said Greenstone and Matawa have a long history of working together and with potential development on the horizon, the two communities want to work together to share in the wealth in the north.
“I’m a very happy man today because what I see is people willing to sit down and identify concrete things they can do together in terms of ensuring there’s mutual benefit, mutual gain going down the road after the environmental assessment,” he said.
Mercredi said they are working on drafting the MOU and it should be presented to the annual Assembly of Matawa Chiefs mid-summer.
