Indigenous-Municipal Relations in Canada: Where Do We Stand?

With close to half of Indigenous Peoples living in urban areas, ensuring strong, deep Indigenous-municipal relationships across Canada is vital. Yet, Canadian municipalities are often unsure what duties and obligations they owe First Nations and Indigenous Peoples living in their jurisdictions.

In this video, Doug Anderson and Alexandra Flynn discuss some of the key questions on the way forward to improved Indigenous-municipal relationships. Do municipalities, like federal and provincial governments, have a “duty to consult,” and is this duty the appropriate framework for Indigenous-municipal relationships? How have municipalities reformed their governance in the last decade to strengthen relationships with Indigenous Peoples? And what more can be done to respond to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action?

Working from their paper for IMFG, Anderson and Flynn look at how Indigenous-municipal relations can move forward in a reciprocal and respectful manner.