QUEEN’S PARK – Mike Schreiner released the following statement in response to a complaint by Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation about lack of consultation on Bill 23.
“The government abandoned any semblance of consultation or debate in its unseemly haste to ram through Bill 23.
As we now learn, that includes not fulfilling its legal obligation to consult with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (MCFN) on a bill that has significant impacts on their treaty rights – namely the proposal to open up thousands of acres of the Greenbelt to development.
MCFN says that it has never been consulted about the legislation, even though the government’s Greenbelt plan includes land that is covered by numerous MCFN treaties.
This is just another example of the heedless, anti-democratic attitude of a government that always puts the interests of wealthy land speculators ahead of everything else, including the treaty rights of First Nations.
I join the MCFN in calling on the government to repeal Bill 23, and start afresh, fulfilling its legal obligation to consult First Nations.
We need legislation that addresses the housing crisis without destroying the environment and trampling on democratic and Indigenous rights.”