A group of Indigenous leaders is denouncing the federal carbon tax and pledging to fight it in court.
“This [carbon tax] has been imposed on us in violation of our rights, without consent, and has caused severe hardship in our communities,” said Stephen Buffalo, CEO of the Indian Resource Council, an Indigenous-led natural resources advocacy group, at a Dec. 4 press conference in Ottawa.
“We have raised the issue of the carbon tax with the federal government before, as many chiefs and nations, and nothing has been done to address the concerns,” Buffalo said. “[W]e have exhausted our avenues for change, and the chiefs have decided to commence with litigation.”
The Calgary-based council is in the early stages of commencing legal action. The aim of the press conference was to urge other Indigenous leaders to join its challenge.
Buffalo and several other chiefs from the Treaty Six Nations had planned to present a resolution to this effect at a Dec. 5 meeting of the Assembly of First Nations, an advocacy organization representing more than 630 First Nations. But they were not able to get it onto the assembly’s agenda, due to time constraints and politicking, Buffalo says.
Buffalo said some assembly executives, whom he did not identify by name, were being overly deferential to the current federal government. “They know where they get their resources from. So I think they have to toe that line of, you know, the current affairs of the Liberal government and the carbon tax and climate change and everything associated with that.”
Buffalo says the council would like the assembly’s backing to fight the carbon tax, to signal to Ottawa that their concerns are not limited to a small number of First Nations.
The Assembly of First Nations did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
‘No alternatives’
Buffalo says Ottawa’s carbon tax imposes a heavy financial burden on First Nation communities, which are already grappling with economic challenges due to isolation and limited infrastructure.
They say the tax is particularly hard on people who use significant amounts of fuel, and those whose economic livelihoods rely heavily on natural resource development.
“The nations in Alberta and Saskatchewan are often remote, and there is a reliance upon high-carbon fuels because there are simply no alternatives,” said Robert Black, a lawyer for the council, at the press conference.
The federal government has said its carbon tax rebate offsets the higher costs consumers pay on account of the tax. This rebate is worth somewhere between $380 and $900 a year, depending on where one resides.
However, Black says Indigenous individuals often do not access the rebate because of how it is administered.
“[T]he reality [is] that the rebate system is through the Income Tax Act, and most folks who live and work on reserves are not filing income tax returns,” he said. “They’re essentially shut out from the system to secure their rebates.”
The federal government says it has taken steps to address these concerns.
“A simplified method has been developed for First Nations individuals with exempt income under the Indian Act, and for those with low taxable income, to file a credit and benefit return,” Samantha Bayard, a spokesperson for Environment and Climate Change Canada, told Canadian Affairs in an emailed statement.
“Starting in 2023, the Canada Revenue Agency began conducting in-person outreach for this simplified return,” she said.
A question of rights
The council also says the tax disregards First Nations’ constitutional and treaty rights, and that Ottawa failed to properly consult with them prior to imposing it.
“Our nations are being taxed without our consent, plain and simple,” Greg Desjarlais, chief of the Alberta-based Frog Lake First Nation, said at the press conference. “The government has no right to impose these policies on us while ignoring the treaties, our inherent rights, and our voices.”
The Supreme Court of Canada has said the government has a duty to consult when government decisions could negatively impact Indigenous rights or lands — a standard Indigenous leaders say was ignored in this context.
For its part, the federal government says the tax counters a problem that has an outsized impact on Indigenous Canadians.
“Climate change, writ large, has a disproportionate impact on Indigenous communities, many of which are in rural or remote areas, and many of which are in the North, which is experiencing a more rapid rate of warming than other regions of the globe,” said Bayard.
Jennifer Cooper, a spokesperson for the department of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, told Canadian Affairs in a separate statement that revenue from taxation facilitates investment in business opportunities on First Nations lands.
Pushing forward
Buffalo says it was a missed opportunity to not have the Assembly of First Nations deliberate on the council’s intended course of action at their December meeting.
“I think every resolution … should be brought at least to the attention of [the assembly] … [T]here’s not too many times when you have the leaderships of the majority of the communities in Canada, either online or in attendance.”
But the council will press on regardless, he says. Their next step is to consult with other Alberta-based chiefs, to try to secure their support for a legal challenge.
If the Conservative Party wins the federal election, the need for litigation may become unnecessary.
“Instead of ignoring First Nations and Canadian families, the NDP-Liberal government must axe their inflationary carbon tax and give people the relief they deserve,” the Conservative Party said in a statement on their website on the day of the council’s press conference.
Buffalo and other chiefs say their fight to end the carbon tax is not about furthering any party’s political interests.
“Our intent is really not to get into the politics of things,” said Delbert Wapass, chief of Saskatchewan-based Thunderchild First Nation, at the press conference. “Our intent is to make sure that as treaty nations, as First Nations, that we are standing up and defending our rights.”
I wouldn’t at all be surprised if the “Indian Resource Council” turned out to be a front for Oil and Gas companies. It’s sad that carbon taxes, the most efficient economic tool we have for dealing with global warming, is rejected by conservatives. What is their alternative means of dealing with the problem? It’s doing nothing! It’s ignoring the problem and hoping it will go away. That’s conservatives these days: in the pocket of the fossil fuel industry and abandoning any responsibility.