MPP Mamakwa responds to the Auditor General’s Five-Year Follow-Up Report on Indigenous Affairs in Ontario

QUEEN’S PARK – Deputy Leader Sol Mamakwa, Kiiwetinoong MPP and NDP Shadow Minister of Indigenous and Treaty Relations denounces the Ministry of Indigenous Affairs for willfully neglecting their duties to Indigenous peoples across Ontario.

This comes in response to the release of the Auditor General of Ontario’s Five-Year Follow-Up Reports, which included the follow-up to the 2020 Indigenous Affairs in Ontario report. After 5 years, only 26% of the recommended actions have been fully implemented. This is the lowest rate of any program and services reviewed in this report.

“What’s worse is that 30% of the recommended actions will not be implemented at all,” MPP Mamakwa noted.

“These findings remind us in words what the Minister of Indigenous Affairs has already shown in action: he does not see the Ministry's mandate as being to serve the needs of Indigenous peoples in this province or to ensure that First Nations rights are being met by this Government.”

Among the recommendations that the Ministry has declined to implement are:

• To take specific steps to improve the land claims settlement process;
• To develop guidance that can help ensure that the government’s programs and services for Indigenous peoples are functioning properly and achieving the stated goals; and
• To ensure that the Government’s consultation processes with First Nations meet legal requirements.

Mamakwa added: “Though not surprising, this government's refusal to ensure that they are meeting the legal requirements of consultation with First Nations is a reminder that we cannot take this government at their word when it comes to Treaty and Aboriginal rights. First Nations rights holders will continue to defend our Inherent Rights, and this Government will not be able to move forward with mining projects in the North without the free, prior and informed consent of the rights holders.”

The Ontario NDP continues to call on the Minister of Indigenous Affairs to fully implement all the actions recommended by the Auditor General of Ontario.