by Xavier Kataquapit
ATTAWAPISKAT – The government of Ontario is pushing through Bill 5 which aims to designate the Ring of Fire as a so-called “special economic zone”. This bill is intended to reduce regulatory processes across major infrastructure, mining, and resource projects. The bill affects several key Acts, including: Ontario Heritage Act, Ontario Energy Board Act, Environmental Assessment Act, Mining Act, Environmental Protection Act, Electricity Act, Endangered Species Act and Rebuilding Ontario Place Act. The Ring of Fire is located in northern Ontario just west of the James Bay lowlands and my home community of Attawapiskat. The proposed development that is being pushed in this region is basically the head waters of the Attawapiskat River which would directly affect all the water flowing out to James Bay.
According to the Chiefs of Ontario, ‘Bill 5 significantly weakens environmental protections, reduces oversight of mining and development projects, and limits opportunities for First Nations consultation and consent.’, First Nation leaders are protesting this development and they are being led by political organizations including Chiefs of Ontario, Nishnawbe-Aski Nation and Anishinabek Nation. At Queens Park, Sol Mamakwa of the New Democratic Party has been leading opposition to the bill and supported by the Liberal Party.
The rise of global warming and our changing global environment is an example of what happens with unregulated and unrestricted corporate growth. Just look at the sky this summer. Recently, I looked up at the afternoon sun to see a red glowing ball in the sky in an orange haze of light. Forest fire smoke is obscuring the sky with unhealthy amounts of particles from the ash of an estimated 1.7 million acres of forest that are currently burning in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. This is a direct result of global warming mostly brought about by our world’s use of fossil fuels. The atmospheric pollution is changing our world to make it hotter which goes on to dry up our forests, make our summers hotter, making warmer weather last longer and in general creating the right conditions to set our Canadian forests on fire. Of course the other results of global warming and climate change give us huge storms and floods globally.
In a report by The Guardian in 2017, they highlighted a report that estimated that just 100 major global companies had been responsible for an estimated 70% of greenhouse gas emissions from 1988 to 2017. In 2024, Oxfam reported that ‘Fifty of the world’s richest billionaires on average produce more carbon through their investments, private jets and yachts in just over an hour and a half than the average person does in their entire lifetime’. It’s clear to see that all of us may be responsible to a degree for global warming but it is the activities of the most powerful and influential companies, corporations and investors who drive the causes of our global warming crisis.
These are the main reasons why our Indigenous leaders are fighting against government programs like Bill 5. Unrestricted and unregulated or poorly controlled or poorly regulated corporations, especially in resource development has a track record of environmental devastation. That devastation is mostly left for those who live on the land to deal with. When the companies finish their work and have made their money, it is the people, especially the local First Nations who are left to deal with the after effects and contamination.
My home community of Attawapiskat has already dealt with the development of the DeBeers diamond mine just west of the community in what was once pristine wilderness. In a short space of time from 2008 to 2019, the company carved out a space in the James Bay mushkeg, dug past the swamp and deep into the rock. After all that work and effort, the company left a deep scar on the land and contributed to negative affects on the general environment of the area.
In the long run of human history, it will be all of us who will deal with the after effects of global warming if we continue to not properly deal with unrestricted and uncontrolled exploitation of our natural resources and disrespect of Mother Earth. How many poisoned rivers, burning forests and toxic air will it take for us to realize that we need to take better care of our world, the land, the water, the air and the creatures who live there? Are we to trust government and corporations to do the right thing in the wake of a Bill 5? I don’t think so.
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