First Nations leaders are meeting today with Prime Minister Mark Carney and some of the country’s premiers in what Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak is calling a historic occasion. The meeting in Ottawa is the first of its kind in years, and it comes after a day of ceremony on Sunday that was itself revealing: First Nations leaders invited all premiers and Carney to that ceremony, but only a handful showed up. The gap between the invitation and the attendance is part of the story, because it measures how much repair the relationship still needs.
Why tensions rose
Tensions between Ottawa and First Nations spiked soon after Carney was elected in 2025, when his government passed legislation to create a new office tasked with streamlining major project developments and approving projects within one year. As Carney works to speed up major project approvals and development, some First Nations chiefs say those efforts threaten their rights. Woodhouse Nepinak’s message is that First Nations are partners in Confederation and must be respected as governments seek to ramp up resource development and major projects. That framing, partnership rather than consultation after the fact, is the test the meeting will be judged against, and it is a test that cannot be passed with a photograph alone.
What to watch beyond Monday
A grassroots collective of First Nations people met on Sunday afternoon at an Ottawa community centre to strategise a protest of the meeting, heavily invoking the 2012 Idle No More protest movement that took over Canadian cities. Their presence is a reminder that the official meeting is not the only conversation happening in Ottawa this week, and that many First Nations people will judge the process by whether project decisions change, not by whether a meeting took place. The meeting’s value will become clear in the weeks ahead: in whether major project timelines still run ahead of consent, in whether premiers who missed the ceremony show up for the harder decisions, and in whether a historic occasion becomes a working relationship or remains a well photographed day.
