🛑 Canada’s Construction Conundrum: The Call for True Partnership with Indigenous Nations

Today's headlines have read everything from success to failures and speculation,  with the signing of an MOU between Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta leader Danielle Smith. A big, but perhaps hasty step forward in Canada's plan to build bigger and ship more resources abroad. After the announcement, a major voice for environmental advocacy, Steven Guilbeault, left Carney's cabinet. The environmental risks are not something he wants to stand behind and support, when he has spent so long advocating for the careful protection of vital natural resources and environments. 

Canada is a country of ambitious plans under frameworks like "Build Canada," but significant developments repeatedly stall. The root of this is not a lack of money or ambition, but a persistent failure to fully recognize and integrate Indigenous history, rights, and sophisticated knowledge from the outset. To fast-track projects and reduce costly land disputes, we must move beyond consultation and build genuine partnerships.

🏛️ The Unseen History Beneath Our Cities: Indigenous Civilizations

For too long, the narrative of Canada has overlooked the fact that Indigenous peoples built complex, permanent, and thriving civilizations. Their "cities" looked different to European explorers because their architecture and cultural traits were adapted to this land, not to the stone-and-mortar traditions of Europe.

Hochelaga: The City Beneath Montreal: The current site of Montreal sits atop the historical grounds of a massive, fortified St. Lawrence Iroquoian city known as Hochelaga. When Jacques Cartier visited in 1535, he described a major settlement surrounded by large corn fields and housing an estimated 1,500 people in dozens of sophisticated longhouses. This was a major urban centre with complex governance and agriculture, a true city by any measure.

Trade and Defensive Networks: Throughout regions like New Brunswick, communities like the Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) and Mi'kmaq had established trade forts and defensive fortifications (such as the area around Meductic on the Wolastoq River/Saint John River) long before European contact. These sites were crucial hubs for commerce, diplomacy, and defence.

Different Structures, Same Sophistication: Unlike the stone cities of Europe, Indigenous structures—from communal longhouses to complex plank houses—were perfectly suited to their environments, expressing a deep connection between society, spirituality, and architecture.

The Cost of Denial

The harmful myth that Indigenous cultures were purely nomadic and "owned nothing" and simply moved on ignores vital history. Cultures had permanent homes, cities, vast hunting grounds, burial sites, and complex societies—a whole country—before colonization.

This denial is the reason projects stall:

Land Claims and Legal Hurdles: The discovery of previously unknown burial grounds or significant cultural sites can immediately halt construction and trigger massive legal challenges, strengthening Indigenous claims to Aboriginal title and rights.

Fear of Discovery: The fear of finding a lot more Indigenous artefacts, which provide irrefutable evidence for claims over land, often leads developers to avoid or resist genuine partnership, ironically leading to the very delays they fear.

🌊 Cautionary Tale: The Devastation of the Mactaquac Dam

Ignoring history and cutting corners not only stalls future projects but has created lasting crises from past developments. The construction of the Mactaquac Dam on the Wolastoq/Saint John River in New Brunswick stands as a global example of this reckless approach.

🏛️ Cultural Catastrophe

The dam's reservoir created a vast headpond that submerged and destroyed countless ancient and historical sites, causing irreparable cultural loss to the Wolastoqiyik Nation.

Village and Burial Site Destruction: Flooding wiped out numerous Wolastoqiyik villages, traditional gathering places, and vital burial grounds that held the remains of ancestors.

Historical Landmarks Lost: The dam permanently covered the historic site of Meductic, once a crucial trading, defensive, and ceremonial hub for the Wolastoqiyik. This also destroyed the potential burial site of Father Loyard (Ioannes Loyard, S.J.), who erected a prominent monument tablet at the St. Jean Baptiste Mission in 1707, along with many Indigenous burials and villages. The loss of these sites is a cultural devastation that received international disapproval from heritage and Indigenous rights organizations.

🐟 Environmental and Structural Harm

Beyond the cultural impact, the project's execution caused long-term environmental and financial burdens:

Fishery Collapse: The dam created a near-total barrier for vital migratory fish species like the Atlantic Salmon and American Eel, significantly disrupting their life cycles and the entire riverine ecosystem. Millions are now spent annually on mitigation efforts, underscoring the long-term economic cost of environmental disregard.

Structural Failure: The dam was built using a type of concrete that deteriorated faster than anticipated due to an Alkali-Aggregate Reaction (AAR). This faulty engineering has led to massive financial losses from required ongoing, costly maintenance and has created safety concerns, jeopardizing the lives and livelihoods of downstream communities should the structure fail.

💡 The Solution: Partnership and Shared Prosperity

To efficiently advance projects while respecting rights and history, Canada must adopt a multi-disciplinary approach at the earliest stages. We must prove that development can be both fast and fair.

Case Study: Oneida Energy Storage Project

The Oneida Energy Storage Project in Southern Ontario is a shining example of this model. The project, one of Canada's largest utility-scale battery storage facilities, was developed in a partnership where the Six Nations of the Grand River Development Corporation (SNGRDC) holds a significant equity stake alongside the private sector.

Speed and Certainty: Indigenous co-ownership meant potential land use issues and permitting challenges were handled collaboratively and proactively, significantly reducing legal risk and shortening development timelines.

Economic Reconciliation: This partnership ensures the community receives a long-term, predictable revenue stream that supports community services, transforming the project into a source of enduring community wealth and a model for sustainable growth.

A Collaborative 'Deep-Dive' Approach

We need to build teams that include:

Indigenous Partners: As knowledge-holders, decision-makers, and equity partners. Their Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) is essential.

Archaeologists & Geologists: To conduct early, comprehensive, and collaborative surveys. This helps zone in on important areas (sites of high cultural and historical significance) and steer development toward less sensitive zones, preventing future costly delays and cultural disasters like Mactaquac.

By proactively incorporating the historical reality of Indigenous cities, forts, and established territories, this collaborative model ensures structural integrity, safeguards the environment, reduces costly land disputes, and demonstrates reconciliation in action. It is the only way to build a stronger, more efficient Canada.