More money, more staff, more lawyers, but little progress on N.B. Indigenous issues

The Higgs government has doubled its spending and staffing on Indigenous issues since it took power, with little visible progress to show for it.

The province has also spent millions of dollars paying lawyers from two major law firms to sit on a steering committee overseeing the government's legal negotiations and court battles with First Nations.

It has led to a more centralized, legalistic approach that is stalling progress on a range of issues, Indigenous leaders say, while producing no breakthroughs in such major areas asland claims and resource royalties.

Nor has it yielded any signed development agreements that Premier Blaine Higgs pitched to chiefs last year to replace the agreements he cancelled on gas-tax sharing.

"New Brunswick taxpayers should be very frustrated with this new approach," said Darrah Beaver, executive director of the Wolastoqey Nation of New Brunswick, which represents chiefs and councils.

"It's costing them more money and creating and fuelling a lot more conflict with the First Nations, and in the end, where does it get us? No further ahead."

CBC News has confirmed that:

• The Department of Aboriginal Affairs now has 43 employees, more than double the 18 it had when the Progressive Conservatives took office in 2018.

• The department's budget has soared from $3.8 million in 2019-20 to $7.4 million this year.

• It spent $2.6 million in 2021-22 on lawyers from Cox & Palmer and Stewart McKelvey, who advise the government and sit with Higgs and key ministers on a steering committee guiding the province's legal position.

• The department created an "initiative management branch" in 2021 to serve as "the hub for all initiatives across government" related to Indigenous people.

• It also created an "information governance" branch last year that collects and manages "all information assets" related to the department's work.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Arlene Dunn did not agree to an interview but provided CBC News with a lengthy written statement that called the changes "a significant reorganization" meant to give the government a more consistent approach.

Process 'respects First Nations rights,' minister says

Before the overhaul, "the Province did not have one approach to consultation across all departments and did not ensure that each consultation met the standard that First Nations were requesting," Dunn said.

Some departments wrongly assumed informal discussion amounted to proper consultation, which "resulted in frustration, delays and wasted efforts," she said.

The initiative management branchnow reviews anything that any department is working on with First Nations and brings in the consultation branch.

Dunn said that ensures the process "respects First Nations rights, is properly documented and achieves the intended result."

And the use of outside lawyers has led to "positive progress" such as an agreement to avoid a court battle and insteadnegotiate following the cancellation of gas tax revenue sharing agreements, Dunn added.

'Where are the results?'

But Indigenous organizations say the new layers of bureaucracy and process, along with the inserting of the department into their dealings with other provincial departments, has stalled progress on a range of issues.

"If they're going to double the budget, double the staff, then where are the results?" said Dean Vicaire, the executive director of Mi'gmawe'l Tplu'taqnn Inc., which represents Mi'kmaq First Nations.

MTI first flagged the problem in 2021, writing that the elaborate new structure "rarely contributes towards positive outcomes, and often results in frustration, delay, and wasted effort, which only serves to undermine the relationship."

Co-chairs George Ginnish and Rebecca Knockwood said in a letter that they had been able to "advance discussions with departments on smaller initiatives [but] these discussions typically grind to a halt once DAA becomes involved."

Vicaire said almost two years later, nothing has changed. And Beaver said many bilateral negotiating tables "just stopped."

Discussions about the Mactaquac dam refurbishment and implementation of an accommodation agreement on the proposed Sisson Brook mine also stalled, she said.

"You would think that investments such as that going into this department that this relationship would be better and the situation would be better with First Nations," she said.

Beaver said longtime staff at Aboriginal Affairs have left and the department now appears to be run by lawyers with little understanding of Indigenous law.

The relationship "was never perfect but it has deteriorated significantly over the years," she said, with the department using potential progress in some initiatives as "a bargaining chip" to pressure chiefs to give ground on issues like shale gas development.

Several initiatives remain works-in-progress

The department provided a 17-page document that lists hundreds of initiatives undertaken by the province, many of them small-scale funding projects.

But several remain works-in-progress.

Then-Aboriginal Affairs Minister Jake Stewart announced in November 2018 that Indigenous people would be allowed to use eagle feathers when taking an oath to testify in court.

The document says the province is still talking about how to do it.

"Work on protocols is moving forward for the appropriate use of Eagle Feathers in oath taking processes in courts," the document says.

A proposal to change seven place names in the province that are racist toward Indigenous people listed on the document as "toponymy process review" remains unfulfilled, CBC News reported earlier this month.

The province has budgeted only $7,800 for the initiative this year.

There's also no discernible progress on bigger ideas like resource revenue sharing in the forestry and mining sectors.

Dunn floated that idea as an alternative to lucrative gas tax sharing agreements that Higgs cancelled in 2021.

The premier said later that year that a major land claim filed by Wolastoqey chiefs was an obstacle to progress on other files.

"It's pretty hard to have a meaningful discussion on forestry revenues and royalties, while at the same time you're being sued for the very land you walk on," he said.

One of the few major breakthroughs was a recent five-year agreement between the province and Neqotkuk First Nation, also called Tobique, that will see the Regional Development Corporation provide more than $22 million for housing and road improvements.

Dunn's statement called it "a significant example" of how the revamped department is achieving success and said other consultations and negotiations are happening now that should lead to more positive announcements in the coming weeks and months.