Skip to content - navigation

Home

Facilitation of the Consultation Process

A report prepared from the 2009 Mi’gmawei Mawiomi (MM) Tri-Councils meeting confirmed that Québec has routinely approved requests for projects on Aboriginal land without holding any kind of meaningful consultation with us, the Mi’gmaq of Gespe’gewa’gi, the rightful owners of this territory.  

Up until now, we have been unwilling bystanders, watching the development and exploitation of natural resources on our ancestral territory without being involved or consulted.  This has led to wrongful access and infringement on our territory by outsiders.
 
The unit is specifically responsible for managing consultation requests sent to MMS from the Government of Québec and individual promoters. 
 
The MMS is the facilitator of the Consultation process.  The C&A Unit does not make any decisions regarding  Consultation & Accommodation files. All decisions are made by the communities via community sessions, meetings with the Technical Advisory Table and direction from the Leadership.
 
 
Specific Duties and Accomplishments So Far
 
The staff of the C&A Unit is responsible for:
 
  • receiving, analyzing and responding to consultation requests from Québec and other promoters in a timely and consistent manner,
      
  • arranging the process for sharing and discussing consultation requests in each of the MM member communities,
      
  • arranging for technical and specialized resource persons to attend the consultations discussions, provide information, and answer questions from the community and MM leadership on the subject of the consultation,
      
  • reporting findings and results of consultations and any accommodations made,
      
  • meeting regularly with representatives of the Government of Québec’s Ministry of Natural Resources (MRNF) and establishing joint policies and procedures with them for the exchange of information about each consultation.
 
We have developed a standard Procedures Manual to ensure that each consultation request is handled in a consistent way. This ensures that that all steps along the way are completed promptly and nothing is overlooked.
 
 
Funding sources
 
Funding for operating the unit comes from:
 
  • Contribution agreements from le Secrétariat aux affaires autochtones (SAA) of Québec
  
Communicating with Our People, the Mi’gmaq of Gespe’gewa’gi
 
In another section of our site, we talk in great detail about how community members can get involved with our work and support us.  Click here for more information.   
 
Our C&A web pages will be a means of letting our people and others know about current work in progress and our expectations about future C&A requests for projects that we see on the horizon.