Carney and premiers meet First Nations leaders in Ottawa today
Politics · The Canadian Chronicle
Published Monday, October 26, 2026
First Nations leaders meet Prime Minister Mark Carney and some of the country's premiers in Ottawa today, in the first meeting of its kind in years, The Canadian Press reports. Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak calls it a historic occasion and says First Nations are partners in Confederation who must be respected as governments move to speed up major project approvals. The meeting follows a day of ceremony in Ottawa on Sunday, October 25, which only a handful of the invited leaders attended. Tension runs under the meeting: legislation passed after Carney's election in 2025 created a new office to streamline major projects and approve them within one year, and some chiefs say that process threatens their rights. A grassroots collective of First Nations people also met in Ottawa on Sunday to plan a protest of the meeting, invoking the Idle No More movement of 2012. Development that lasts needs the consent and partnership of the communities it touches — that test now sits in front of every major project on Ottawa's fast track.