Canada’s May 28, 2025 Submission to the Tribunal
Press Release
We write in response to the Tribunal’s request for Canada’s detailed submissions on COO and NAN’s request for expanded participatory rights (if those rights are required).
As Canada’s detailed submissions are brief, Canada is providing them in this letter.
In summary, Canada’s position is that if expanded participatory rights are required for COO and NAN to seek the relief set out in their joint motion, the Tribunal should grant those expanded rights as set out in para. 5 of the COO and NAN’s Amended Joint Notice of Motion. Such an order would further the important causes of reconciliation and self-determination in relation to First Nations in Ontario. Alternatively, if the Tribunal is not prepared to grant the requested relief, Canada asks that it be added as a moving party to the existing motion, which in its view will render the issue moot.
A. If required, the Tribunal should grant the expanded participatory rights
Two principal reasons strongly militate in favor of the Tribunal granting COO and NAN the additional participatory rights to settle the elements of this Complaint that relate to the delivery of the FNCFS Program in Ontario and the 1965 Agreement.
1. Expanded participatory rights accord with reconciliation and self-determination
COO and NAN have persistently and diligently negotiated with Canada in good faith towards long-term reform of the FNCFS Program, including working to create the draft National Final Agreement. Through COO and NAN, Ontario First Nations organize and govern themselves
in line with their right to participate in decision-making matters that affect their rights.1 Granting their sought relief would affirm their efforts to resolve aspects of the underlying Complaint for Ontario First Nations and the ultimate causes of reconciliation and self-determination.
After the First Nations-in-Assembly rejected the draft National Final Agreement in October 2024, COO invited Canada to negotiate a reformed FNCFS Program. In January 2025, COO, NAN, and Canada began intensive negotiations that led to the provisional Ontario Final Agreement and the provisional Trilateral Agreement, both of which the First Nations-in-Assembly of COO and NAN subsequently approved. 2 As evidenced below, the agreements reflect the objectives of reconciliation and self-determination as well as the Tribunal’s findings:
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