The Indian Resource Council of Canada (IRC) and some Treaty Six Chiefs held a news conference on Parliament Hill on Wednesday, indicating they intend to file a judicial review against the climate policy.
“The impact of this legislation in Alberta and Saskatchewan and Treaty Six territory is severe,” said Robert Black, legal counsel for the IRC.
“The nations in Alberta and Saskatchewan are often remote, and there is a reliance upon high carbon fuels because there's simply no alternatives. There's no process in those reserves to just make better choices, to use mass transportation, because there's a massive infrastructure deficit within community,” he said.
“Then, you combine that with the reality that the rebate system is through the Income Tax Act, and most folks that live and work on reserves are not filing income tax returns. They're essentially shut out from the system to secure their rebates.”
The fact that First Nations weren’t consulted on the federal carbon pricing system breaches the Crown’s duty to consult and, although the carbon price isn’t technically a tax, “it clearly violates the spirit and intent” of on-reserve tax exemptions in the Indian Act, said Gregg Desjarlais, Chief of Frog Lake First Nation and chairman of the IRC board.