THUNDER BAY – “Matawa member First Nations will lead and deliver the next economic boom of this province. Equitable partnerships between Matawa First Nations-Government-Industry will result in investment opportunities on a national and international scale. Matawa First Nations are the partners and investors of certainty required for economic and social prosperity,” says Chief Harvey Yesno, Eabametoong First Nation.
“Matawa First Nations are fully aware of the potential impacts to our Inherent Aboriginal and Treaty Rights with the anticipated significant developments that will occur on our homelands. In today’s environment, it would be absurd and negligent for our communities not to call on the Ontario government to develop a new Crown-Inherent Aboriginal Rights-Treaty approach to develop the North,” states Chief Celia Echum, Ginoogaming First Nation.
The Chiefs of the Matawa First Nations (MFN) presented to the Ontario Standing Committee on General Government (SC-GG) regarding Bill 132, also known as ‘An Act to reduce burdens on people and businesses by enacting, amending and repealing various Act and revoking various Regulations’ tabled on Monday, October 28, 2019 by the Hon. Prabmeet Sarkaria, Associate Minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction.
On November 6, 2019, MFN issued its Statement on Hidden Mining Act Provisions in the Proposed ‘Better for People, Smarter for Business Act‘ saying that the proposed bill was deeply problematic for them.
The presentation to the SC-GG was made by Chief Harvey Yesno of Eabametoong First Nation, Chief Celia Echum of Ginoogaming First Nation and Chief Veronica Waboose of Long Lake #58 First Nation on behalf of the Matawa Chiefs Council (the presentation is available upon request or can be downloaded on the Legislative Assembly of Ontario website). The presentation was further to the MFN statement made on November 6, 2019, and included these main points:
For the rest of this article/news release: http://www.netnewsledger.com/2019/11/26/matawa-chiefs-matawa-member-first-nations-will-lead-and-deliver-the-next-economic-boom-of-this-province/