Report recommends Parks Canada end 2015 agreement with NunatuKavut while keeping separate consultation

A report commissioned by Parks Canada recommends terminating the shared understanding agreement it signed in 2015 with the NunatuKavut Community Council for the Akami-Uapishku-KakKasuak-Mealy Mountains National Park Reserve. Cbc reported that Eric Maldoff, the Montreal-based lawyer who conducted the 18-month review, concluded little progress had occurred under the arrangement.

The reserve covers roughly 10,700 square kilometres of boreal forest, mountains and coastline in Labrador.

Park entrances are planned for Sheshatshiu, Rigolet and Cartwright. Eight per cent of the reserve overlaps with Nunatsiavut’s land claim settled in 2005, while Innu Nation’s claim covers the entire area. Parks Canada has already signed impacts and benefits agreements with both groups.

NCC submitted a land claim covering the full reserve, but it has not been accepted for negotiation. Maldoff wrote that the 2015 agreement created confusion by suggesting NCC held the same consultation status as the other two organizations, even though neither Nunatsiavut nor Innu Nation recognizes NCC as an Indigenous group.

He recommended ending the agreement and instead consulting NCC separately while forming a traditional land users advisory committee.

Maldoff added that if Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada later recognizes NCC under Section 35, Parks Canada should then negotiate an impacts and benefits agreement. Derek Simon, a Halifax-based lawyer for NCC, said the organization was disappointed and viewed Maldoff’s prior role as a federal negotiator on Innu Nation’s claim as a conflict of interest.