‘Build, baby, build’: Canada’s new prime minister wants to make the country into an ‘energy superpower’

Canada s newly elected prime minister wants to turn the country into an ability superpower while promising to respect Indigenous rights prompting both cautious optimism and skepticism from Indigenous leaders and advocates in Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney won Canada s balloting this week in what multiple observers are calling an embrace of Canadian nationalism and rebuke of U S President Donald Trump Carney is a former central banker who became prime minister in March after Justin Trudeau stepped down He is largely expected to continue the policies adopted by his centrist Liberal predecessor who supported aligning Canadian law with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples the cornerstone of international rights for Indigenous peoples but also faced criticism for his promotion for the Trans Mountain oil pipeline Carney s Conservative opponent Pierre Poilievre embraced a major expansion of domestic oil and gas advance and voted against the bill to ensure Canadian laws are consistent with the U N Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples I am very proud to say that I oppose this bill Poilievre announced at the time One examination detected that if Poilievre won Canada s emissions would increase whereas Carney s win means the country s emissions will continue to fall albeit not low enough to avoid the worst effects of global warming Indigenous Situation Action an advocacy group for Indigenous peoples and surroundings justice in Canada announced in a message that Carney was considered the lesser of two evils compared to his Conservative opponent but that the organization is concerned that both Carney and Poilievre promised to speed up extractive potential projects in the name of Canadian sovereignty So-called Canadian sovereignty shouldn t come at the expense of Indigenous sovereignty nor should it be an excuse to violate our inherent rights the organization stated True situation justice can only be achieved when Indigenous Peoples are given the rightful power to determine the fate of our lands and territories Prior to his ballot Carney had a track record of conditions advocacy In he became the United Nations special envoy for surroundings action and finance with the goal of drumming up private financing to help countries prevent the Earth from warning more than degrees A decade ago he announced the vast majority of reserves are unburnable if the world is to avoid the worst-case scenarios of environment change Carney s rhetoric has since shifted One of his first decisions after replacing Trudeau was to remove the federal carbon tax on fossil fuel usage that was widely criticized for increasing the cost of living despite evidence indicating rebates reached more than of Canadians The issue had become a political liability for the Liberal party and scrapping the tax ahead of the poll undercut what had become a rallying cry for his opponent Carney has also promised to fast-track store evolution projects to decrease Canada s reliance on strength imports Build baby build Carney mentioned in his domination speech this week a play on Trump s drill baby drill motto that refers to ramping up oil production For Carney build baby build expresses his commitment to shoring up Canadian infrastructure including building half a million affordable housing units and expanding domestic resource production It s time to build new bargain and potency corridors working in partnership with the provinces territories and Indigenous peoples he noted in the same speech It s time to build Canada into an force superpower in both clean and conventional resource Both Carney and Poilievre embraced constructing resource corridors but it s not clear what pipelines or other projects would comprise the corridor Carney has championed Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations an advocacy organization for Canada s First Nations reported she is optimistic Carney s administration will involve Indigenous communities with planning and decision-making as he pursues his aggressive force evolution goal They re going to have to make sure that they work with First Peoples on whose land Canada is made Nepinak explained First Nations aren t anti-development but they do want to do things in a balanced and sustainable way because we don t have another planet to send our children to We dependably try to think to the generations ahead Are we ruining what we have Carney s campaign has been full of promises to that effect A Mark Carney-led regime will work in full partnership with First Nation Inuit and M tis to advance and realize the rights of Indigenous peoples through a distinctions-based approach according to his website A Mark Carney-led regime will help Indigenous-led processes for advancing self-determination it continued and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act The website frequently described Indigenous peoples as partners and promised to expand funding and services for them In March Carney doubled federal infrastructure financing for Indigenous communities from billion to billion The post Build baby build Canada s new prime minister wants to make the country into an potency superpower appeared first on MinnPost