The one thing
Carney's investment summit meets the consent question, outside on the square and inside at the lectern
Prime Minister Mark Carney opened Canada's first national investment summit in Toronto on September 14 and 15, seeking $1 trillion in investment over five years, with BlackRock's Larry Fink and Blackstone's Jon Gray among those in the room. Outside, more than 1,000 people — Indigenous leaders, environmental groups and unions — rallied at Nathan Phillips Square and marched; two arrests were reported. Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chief Na'Moks told the crowd Canada is "getting very good at blackmailing the public" and accused the government of selling off resources to foreign investors.
The statements timed to the summit named specific territories. Neskantaga First Nation issued a formal warning on September 14 that the Ring of Fire roads — the Marten Falls Community Access Road, where Ontario began construction on August 31, the Webequie Supply Road and the Northern Road Link — proceed without its consent. "Our homelands are not Canada's to sell," the Nation said, adding there is "no certainty for Ring of Fire investments as long as our people are alive." It says the Northern Road Link would cross the Attawapiskat River without giving Neskantaga direct access, and points to a federal impact assessment that found significant adverse effects on fish habitat, Indigenous health and traditional land use. Chief Gary Quisess attended the rally while the community deals with a sewage emergency at its nursing station. Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief Linda Debassige told the summit that resources on Anishinabek lands "are not theirs to give or to barter away," that "trust must be built before any investment can be made in our territories," and that the Nation remains open to collaboration on equitable terms.
Inside, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak told delegates First Nations must be "owners and suppliers at every step" and "cannot be left out anymore." Across town the same day, the Government of Nunavut and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. hosted a luncheon where four Inuit-owned corporations pitched more than $3 billion in Arctic infrastructure to the same pool of capital. The week put both answers side by side: consent first, ownership first, sometimes from the same podium. Further permitting decisions under the major-projects agenda are due this fall.
Sources 1, 2, 3
Economic Sovereignty
Nisg̱a'a Nation and Tahltan Nation Development Corporation open BC's first majority Indigenous-owned port at Stewart
The Nisg̱a'a Nation, Tahltan Nation Development Corporation and Arrow Transportation Systems Inc. officially opened the Portland Canal Marine Terminal in Stewart on September 9, through Portland Canal Holdings Limited Partnership, which the three partners acquired in 2025. The deep-sea terminal handles roughly 300,000 tonnes of copper and gold concentrate a year and employs about 100 full-time workers. Modernisation was supported by a $5-million BC Northwest Strategy grant and federal funding through Pacific Economic Development Canada. Nisg̱a'a Nation President Eva Clayton called it a milestone representing "the strength of Indigenous leadership, partnership, and economic self-determination."
Why it matters
It is the first majority Indigenous-owned port in the province, and it sits at the export end of the Golden Triangle's mineral traffic. The partners hold the gateway itself rather than a royalty or a seat at a consultation table — a different position in the chain than Nations in the northwest have usually occupied.
Sources 4
Four Inuit-owned corporations pitch more than $3 billion of Arctic projects to private capital in Toronto
The Government of Nunavut and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. hosted a networking luncheon in Toronto on September 14, alongside the Canada Investment Summit. West Kitikmeot Resources Corp. is seeking $1 billion for the Gray's Bay Port and Road, a 230-kilometre all-season road and deep-sea port already referred to the federal Major Projects Office. Nukik Corp. is seeking $1 billion for the Kivalliq Hydro-Fibre transmission line, targeting a 2028 groundbreaking. Nunavut Nukkiksautiit Corp. is seeking $750 million for a 15-to-30-megawatt hydro plant on the Kuugaluk River near Iqaluit, meant to displace about 15 million litres of diesel a year, and Arctic Economic Development Corp. is seeking $350 million for the Qikiqtarjuaq Deep Sea Port. Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty and NTI Vice-President Paul Irngaut attended.
Why it matters
These are Inuit-owned entities going to investors directly rather than waiting on federal infrastructure dollars alone. West Kitikmeot Resources CEO Brendan Bell put it plainly: "we're going to need private capital to step up if these projects are going to become a reality."
Sources 5
Peepeekisis Cree Nation opens Saskatchewan's first Indigenous-owned funeral home
Peepeekisis Cree Nation opened the Peepeekisis Funeral Home in Lorlie, Saskatchewan, on September 17 — a facility of more than 10,000 square feet offering cremation, traditional burial and ceremonial services. The project cost $7,076,375, with Indigenous Services Canada contributing just over $1 million through the Community Opportunities Readiness Program. It joins Peepeekisis Developments Ltd.'s existing businesses: Temple Gardens Mineral Spa, Buffalo Hill Gas & Convenience Store and RealLeaf Cannabis Store. Chief Francis Dieter called the opening "another step toward sovereignty," pointing to the jobs, training and revenue it brings the community and the surrounding region.
Why it matters
End-of-life care is a service every community needs and most Nations buy from outside. A Nation-owned funeral home keeps the ceremony, the employment and the spending inside the community, and adds a fourth line to a portfolio that already spans hospitality, retail and cannabis.
Sources 6
Land, Water & Rights
Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation's Treaty 8 challenge to a water licence for an AI data centre survives a developer's bid to strike it
Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation is challenging an Alberta water licence that allows up to six million cubic metres a year to be drawn from the Smoky River. The licence is held by the Municipal District of Greenview and supports O'Leary Digital Limited's proposed Wonder Valley AI data-centre complex in northern Alberta. The Nation argues Alberta breached its duty to consult under Treaty 8, and says it learned only through a January 2026 disclosure order that the province had decided in November 2024 that consultation was unnecessary. On August 13, Justice P.K. Johal of Alberta's Court of King's Bench dismissed O'Leary Digital's application to strike the challenge and declined to add the company as a respondent or intervenor. O'Leary Digital filed a notice of appeal on August 21. The judicial review on the consultation question is set for December.
Why it matters
Water for AI infrastructure is a new and growing draw on prairie rivers, and this is one of the first cases to run that allocation through Treaty 8 and the duty to consult. The timeline the Nation describes — a 2024 no-consultation decision surfacing in 2026 — is the kind of procedural gap courts have looked at closely since Haida and Mikisew.
Sources 7
Métis Nation–Saskatchewan moves to revive a 120,000-square-kilometre title claim stayed since 2005
The Northwest Land Claim was filed in 1994 by Métis Nation–Saskatchewan, 34 original Métis plaintiffs and the Métis National Council, covering roughly 120,000 square kilometres of northern Saskatchewan and Alberta. It was stayed in 2005 after the plaintiffs failed to file required court documents during a period of internal leadership turmoil. The plaintiffs have now applied to Saskatchewan's Court of King's Bench to lift the stay. Gerald Morin, an original plaintiff and now an adviser to MN–S, expects the matter before the court in October. The claim seeks declarations of Aboriginal title and rights to land and resources, and recognition of self-government, across the territory.
Why it matters
The claim was filed before Tsilhqot'in and before this year's Cowichan and Haida Gwaii title declarations. Reviving it puts a Métis title claim of unusual scale in front of a body of case law that was built while the file sat dormant. A stay pauses a claim; it does not end one.
Sources 8
Four Treaty No. 6 Nations take the Haylands ruling to the Federal Court of Appeal, on the treaty's 150th anniversary
Onion Lake Cree Nation, Cold Lake First Nations, Kehewin Cree Nation and Frog Lake Cree Nation filed for judicial review at the Federal Court of Appeal on September 9 — 150 years to the day after their ancestors signed Treaty No. 6 at Fort Pitt. They are challenging an August 10 Specific Claims Tribunal decision that found roughly 17,895 acres known as the Haylands were never set aside as reserve land, and that the Crown's obligation was limited to guaranteeing adequate hay for livestock. The Nations argue the Haylands were reserved and protected under the treaty's land and agricultural commitments, and that the Tribunal's reading undervalued Indigenous oral history.
Why it matters
The question underneath is how much weight the Tribunal gives oral history when it conflicts with Crown documents — a question the courts have been working through since Delgamuukw. An appellate answer would reach beyond these four Nations into how specific claims are heard generally.
Sources 9
Governance & Policy
AFN sets out First Nations priorities as Parliament returns September 21
National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak issued a statement on September 17 ahead of the fall sitting. The list: legislation on First Nations policing and inherent jurisdiction; legislation recognising Indian Residential School denialism as a hate crime; repeal of the Indian Act's second-generation cut-off on citizenship; amendments to the proposed First Nations Clean Water Act; amendments to the Cannabis Act; First Nations priorities in federal budget spending; and action on outstanding Treaty obligations. A First Nations-First Ministers' Meeting is set for October 26 on unceded Algonquin territory in Ottawa, with a day of ceremony on October 25 and a virtual leadership gathering on September 23 to brief on preparations.
Why it matters
This is the AFN's position going into a First Ministers' meeting where economic development, energy and the environment are on the table — and where the fully costed $19-billion school infrastructure ask carried from the summer also lands.
Sources 10
Nisg̱a'a Lisims Government gives notice of a proposed Village Construction Financing Act
Nisg̱a'a Lisims Government posted a Notice of Proposed Legislation on September 17 for the Village Construction Financing Act, with the underlying public notice dated September 14. The notice is issued under the government's own law-making authority as a modern treaty Nation.
Why it matters
Alongside the port opening at Stewart the same week, it is a small, routine example of what treaty jurisdiction looks like in practice: a Nation legislating how its villages finance construction, through its own statute process rather than through the Indian Act.
Sources 11
Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation elects Lance Nagwan chief; a citizen's petition to delay the vote did not stop it
Erin Linklater, a Vuntut Gwitchin citizen and former executive director of the Nation, filed a petition with the Yukon Supreme Court on August 31 seeking to postpone the September 15 chief and council election. She alleges that amendments to the governance act and a new election law passed earlier this year did not follow the Nation's constitution and governance act, including bypassing a required general assembly. The election went ahead. Lance Nagwan, the former fish and wildlife manager, was elected chief, succeeding Pauline Frost, who did not run again. Brandon Kyikavichik, Lisa Van Fleet, Ciara Kakfwi-Frost and Ryan Newman-Kay were elected to council. The Nation called the petition "a distraction" and said it would defend the decisions of its elected leaders.
Why it matters
The dispute is about the Nation's own law-making process, not the Indian Act — where a citizen's recourse sits when they say a self-governing Nation has not followed its own constitution. The petition remains before the court.
Sources 12, 13
Closer to Home
BC's attorney general is "hopeful" on DRIPA amendments this fall, but makes no commitment
At the Union of BC Municipalities convention in Vancouver on September 15, Attorney General Niki Sharma said the province is optimistic about resolving changes to the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, without committing to specific amendments. "Our government has been contacting various leaders. They gave us ideas. And we're making really good progress," she said. Premier David Eby pushed the changes to the fall session after failing to secure enough votes in the spring. The pressure comes from a December 2025 court ruling that found the Mineral Tenure Act's claims framework inconsistent with DRIPA, which set off a summer of consultations with First Nations leaders.
Why it matters
DRIPA is the mechanism that is supposed to carry UNDRIP into BC law. Whatever the province tables this fall will shape how consultation and consent work on resource decisions in the Interior and the Fraser Canyon, including Nlaka'pamux territory.
Sources 14
Okanagan Nation Alliance questions BC's working forest model
Forests Minister Ravi Parmar has announced a Working Forest Landscape Model that divides the land base into conservation zones, multiple-use zones and working forest zones where timber harvesting takes priority. The Okanagan Nation Alliance, a coalition of Syilx First Nations, said in a September 16 statement that the model "raises fundamental questions about how the health of the land is valued and who determines its future," and that forests "are more than a timber supply." Chief Clarence Louie, ONA Tribal Chairman, said the model "cannot come at the expense of the land, water, wildlife." ONA flagged unclear processes for setting zone boundaries and enforcement, and said title holders should be part of land-management decisions in their territories. Pilot zones are expected this fall.
Why it matters
This is the first Interior Nation response to a zoning approach the province wants to apply widely. How the pilots handle Aboriginal title and DRIPA consultation in Syilx territory will be read closely by neighbouring Nations, including in Nlaka'pamux and Fraser Canyon country.
Sources 15
Nuu-chah-nulth and Haida harvesters press DFO on the trawl fleet's exemption from Chinook closures
Ha-Shilth-Sa reported on September 16 that DFO's Chinook closures for recreational and commercial fisheries, imposed to protect Southern Resident killer whales, do not apply to the groundfish bottom-trawl fleet. Hesquiaht commercial fisher Victor Amos said trawling has "destroyed whole lingcod areas" and cut fishing by 60 per cent in some places, and that "DFO bends a knee to big corporations." Ucluelet charter operator Sam Vandervalk called bottom trawling "completely barbaric." Separately, the Council of the Haida Nation is working to eliminate all commercial trawling in Haida Gwaii waters, saying it provides no economic benefit. DFO says the trawl fishery operates under a 9,500-Chinook bycatch cap and that its decisions rest on the best available science.
Why it matters
Indigenous and non-Indigenous fishers on the west coast of Vancouver Island are lined up on the same side of this one. The differential treatment of the trawl fleet bears directly on food, social and ceremonial access and on stock recovery along the whole coast.
Sources 16
The bright spot
Nipissing First Nation's 38th pow wow: "free to be who we are"
Nipissing First Nation held its 38th Annual Traditional Dewegigewaad Pow Wow on September 5 and 6 in Garden Village, with 45 contestants and several drum groups, Battle Nation as host drum. Head Elders Perry and Laurie McLeod-Shabogesic led the gathering alongside Chief Cathy Stevens, Councillor Samantha Stevens and Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief Linda Debassige. The Woodland dance style was welcomed back to the community this year, and Dot Beaucage-Kennedy was recognised for her Ms. Elite Regional Canada title. Emcee Christina Beaucage and Arena Director Tory Fisher ran the grounds. "We are finally in a place where we are free to be who we are as Anishinaabe People," Laurie McLeod-Shabogesic told Anishinabek News, speaking of gratitude as medicine and of young people learning the dances, the songs and the language.
Sources 17