Ottawa Frames Consent as a Goal, Not a Requirement, for New Nuclear in Saugeen Ojibway Nation Territory
SON says its consent is required for the Bruce C expansion, but Natural Resources Canada points to consent as a goal, not a requirement, for new nuclear.
The federal government says free, prior and informed consent is a goal of consultation — not a requirement — for new nuclear development in or affecting Saugeen Ojibway Nation territory, including the proposed Bruce C expansion. It points to the Crown's duty to consult and, where appropriate, accommodate as the governing standard.
The position, provided by Natural Resources Canada, responds to questions the Owen Sound Current put to the department after publishing SON’s July 7 statement that Ottawa developed Canada’s Nuclear Energy Strategy without involving the Nation and that SON’s consent is required for new nuclear development affecting its territory.
SON’s statement, released the day the federal Strategy questions were posed, closed on a specific claim: “The SON Joint Chiefs and Councils continue to make it clear that SON's consent is required for any new nuclear development in or affecting our Territory.”
Asked directly whether the government shares that view, NRCan’s first response described the duty to consult and, where appropriate, accommodate, without addressing consent.
Pressed a second time for a plain yes or no — and given the precedent of Ontario Power Generation’s 2013 commitment not to build the Deep Geologic Repository at the Bruce site without SON’s consent, honoured when SON members voted the project down in 2020 — the department said:
“Whenever a new nuclear development is proposed that could adversely impact Indigenous constitutional rights, the Crown’s duty to consult and, where appropriate, accommodate Indigenous peoples comes into effect.
Consultations will be conducted in a manner informed by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and will be undertaken with the objective of seeking free, prior, and informed consent.”
With free, prior and informed consent as the objective of consultation, the Crown must consult and seek consent but a project can proceed without it. Consent as a requirement, the standard SON asserts, would mean a project cannot proceed unless the Nation agrees.
On engagement, NRCan said it drew on existing tables to develop the Strategy, including the Nuclear Energy Leadership Table, to which it says SON is invited, and that it invited written feedback from stakeholders and Indigenous groups, including SON, on a discussion document.
The department did not say whether SON took part in either.
NRCan confirmed it is aware of SON’s letter to the Prime Minister and other federal ministers and said the correspondence will be addressed by relevant ministers in due course. It did not give a timeline.
The department described the Strategy as a policy document that does not approve or authorize specific projects, and said the mechanisms to consult Indigenous groups and assure equitable participation in nuclear projects are still to be developed.
The Current also asked NRCan to respond to SON leadership’s description of its territory as “an energy sacrifice zone.” The department did not address the characterization in either of its responses.
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