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“Build, baby, build.”
Canada’s spin on the mantra has been a nationalist rallying cry of Prime Minister Mark Carney: Build “Canada strong.” Build a Canada less dependent on the United States. Build an “energy superpower.”
That means to build, and quickly, projects of national interest that could include oil pipelines, nuclear facilities, mines, power grids, ports, roads and railways — all of it to create a stronger domestic economy and increase trade with countries other than the United States.
“We are going to build,” Mr. Carney said in his speech after winning the election in April. “Build, baby, build.”
But Mr. Carney’s ambitions are facing a fierce backlash — building any enormous infrastructure would most likely require doing so on the ancestral lands of Canada’s Indigenous groups. And they have denounced the government’s vision even before the first shovels have been pushed into the dirt.
Indigenous leaders, whose opinions were ignored in past nation-building periods, say that it must be different this time. In a new era of reconciliation between Canada and its Indigenous communities, they want a say — perhaps even a veto — over what gets built.
“It’s up to governments to come and see us about decisions concerning our territory,” said Dave Petiquay, a traditional leader in Wemotaci, a reserve in Quebec of the Atikamekw First Nations people. “But they don’t. They come only after making decisions and passing laws.”
