Roundtable on environmental management and the on-reserve regulatory gap : 2004-05 Institute on Governance roundtable series : towards a new aboriginal governance agenda, TANAGA

Nahwegahbow is a senior partner in the First Nation law firm Nahwegahbow, Nadjiwan, Corbiere, and also the Chair of the Board of the Forest Stewardship Council, as well as a former president of the Indigenous Bar Association of Canada. [...] The categories of options are: 1. To rely exclusively on First Nation management 2. To use Part 9 of CEPA 3. To amend legislation so as to allow the federal government to develop on-reserve regimes that are harmonized with provincial regimes Within the first category there are essentially four approaches to eliminating the ‘gap’: a. Invoking the inherent right to self-government: under the inheren [...] In addition, this approach is not a comprehensive solution, as CEPA 1999 is restricted to environmental protection issues, and does not authorize the development of regulations covering the full scope of the environmental management gap. [...] Upon comparing the various options, there are a number of reasons to conclude that the adoption of provincial approaches in the on-reserve context is likely the best approach. [...] Nahwegahbow thanked the IOG, participants, the elder, and the Algonquin Nation from the traditional territory for the opportunity to speak at the event, and introduced himself.