As the Prime Minister met with Canada’s Premieres in Saskatoon today to discuss strengthening Canada’s economy, the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) highlighted major concerns they have being excluded from discussions and is calling on the Prime Minister and the premiers to include them.

The FSIN brought forth two key issues in a press conference today (Monday) outlining the continued exclusion of First Nations from key discussions impacting their rights, and secondly the recently announced National Interest Legislation and the way it’s being advanced without meaningful and engagement of First Nations involvement.

The agenda items for First ministers meeting in Saskatoon is on internal trade, tariffs, pipelines and major projects.
FSIN say they are very concerned because these are all critical matters that impact their inherent treaty and constitutional rights, and the discussions must include them. They say our treaties are binding agreements made between two nations and cannot be altered without the consent of both.

The FSIN say if national projects are moving forward, being left out of critical decisions is unacceptable. They said we must work together, not in isolation, and to co-develop the legislation and regulatory processes and institutions that will shape them.