‘Trickery and bad faith’: The Ontario government approved new mining permits using a map a local First Nation says is outdated and inaccurate

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When deciding to approve a flurry of mining permits in the province’s northwest corner, the Ontario government turned to a more than 30-year-old map of the Grassy Narrows First Nation.

The exploratory drilling would happen beyond the fringe of the First Nation, according to the map. So, the government decided, there was no need to consult the nearby Indigenous community.

The government was knowingly using an outdated and inaccurate map, members of the First Nation charge, green-lighting drilling and excavation in areas where the residents say they go for moose hunting, picking berries and camping.

“Grassy Narrows has been crystal clear for many years about the area that we use and want to protect. The only reason I can see to use a different map is trickery and bad faith,” Grassy Narrows spokesperson JB Fobister said.

The First Nation says it has provided the government with an updated map of the area — what is now called an Indigenous Sovereignty and Protected Area — multiple times over the last decade.

For Grassy Narrows, where generations of residents have suffered from mercury poisoning after a pulp mill upstream dumped its industrial waste into the river, the mining permits present yet another threat to their community.

“Our land and our way of life are already at the breaking point because of the ongoing impacts of residential schools, hydro dams, mercury poisoning, and clear-cut logging,” Fobister said.

Mining, he added, would “further fragment and degrade” the environment.

Drew Campbell, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry, wrote in an email that Ontario is committed to meeting the Crown’s duty to “consult with Indigenous communities and strives to strengthen relationships with these communities.”

Campbell said the government is “reviewing the circumstances in which these permits were issued,” and the ministry is willing to meet with members of Grassy Narrows “to discuss and resolve these issues.”

Grassy Narrows officials say they were not informed about the exploration permits before they were issued between August 2019 and February 2021. They only stumbled upon the active permits in April.

The eight permits collectively cover more than 42,000 acres, about a third of which falls within Grassy Narrows’ area, according to the First Nation.

Under Ontario’s Mining Act, the government has a duty to consult Indigenous communities potentially affected by mining activities before deciding whether to issue a permit.

The ministry spokesperson said the province consults with Indigenous communities about exploration mining applications where they understand that proposed project activities have a potential to “adversely affect a community’s established or credibly asserted Aboriginal and/or treaty rights.”

The ministry did not notify Grassy Narrows about the eight mining permits because they “lay outside” of what the government understood at that time was the First Nation’s traditional land, a spokesperson said.

“Over time, (Grassy Narrows) has asserted jurisdiction over a significantly larger area of provincial Crown land than community members had previously identified as the community’s traditional land use area,” Campbell said.

Grassy Narrows officials told Torstar the old map was hastily made in the 1980s and was not accurate. They say it had been replaced a decade ago.

As early as 2011, the First Nation submitted an updated map of Grassy Narrows during a court battle to determine whether the government had the power to authorize clear-cut logging in the area.

Over the last decade, Grassy Narrows says it has submitted the same updated map to the Ontario government on multiple occasions. In 2017, the updated area map was included in the province’s 10-year management plan for logging part of the Whiskey Jack Forest, home to Grassy Narrows and where clear-cut logging has been suspended.

The area of the new map was not challenged by the government, according to Grassy officials.

Grassy Narrows has also requested the land outlined in the map be designated by the federal government as an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA).

IPCAs are lands and waters where Indigenous governments take on a primary role in protecting and conserving an ecosystem. That role includes determining the boundaries and land management plans. No decision on the designation has been made.

Campbell said in September 2018 the ministry reached out to Grassy Narrows about an additional permit application — not one of the eight permits that cover 42,000 acres — that overlapped Grassy Narrows territory according to the old map. He said there was no response.

Fobister said Grassy officials never received any correspondence on the application.

The ministry approved that permit in 2019.

“In general, it is not honourable to send a letter to a community in crisis and then to charge ahead with potentially damaging industrial activities if you don’t hear back,” Fobister said.

Grassy Narrows officials say they requested dispute resolution under the Mining Act as a response to an email from the ministry staff inviting discussion on the map for the Indigenous protected area.

The invitation came June 25 — more than a year after the first of the eight permits was approved — and after the Indigenous community repeatedly wrote to the ministry for information about the permits.

Minister Greg Rickford has agreed to meet Grassy Narrows officials to discuss dispute resolution and the early exploration permits in question.

Ontario approved these exploration permits at a time when Grassy Narrows saw a surge in active mining claims.

An April 2021 Torstar investigation found the area covered by mineral claims had expanded fourfold on Grassy Narrows territory since October 2018, when the First Nation made a land declaration banning industrial activities — including mineral staking and mining — on its territory.

The Doug Ford government came under fire for facilitating mining on the territory while alleged mercury dumps upstream have not been excavated.

A ministry spokesperson had attributed the increase in gold claims to soaring mineral prices as well as the discovery of gold on a nearby property in 2018. He also noted that the overwhelming majority of claim registrations and exploration projects do not result in an operating mine.

Toronto Star investigations have previously identified two suspected mercury dump sites upstream from the Indigenous community, where residents have long suffered mental and physical health problems due to mercury poisoning.

Fish near Grassy Narrows remain the most contaminated in the province, and scientists strongly suspect that old mercury still contaminates the mill site and pollutes the river.

The spokesperson said the ministry is holding mill site owner Domtar responsible for assessing the extent of mercury contamination in and around the site.