A Tuesday meeting between the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations and the province is signalling an end to the sometimes-tenuous relationship between the two.
A big part of the all-encompassing meeting with the FSIN – including Chief Bobby Cameron and Vice-Chief Bob Merasty – along with Premier Brad Wall and other government officials focused on protocols to deal with the strained relations between indigenous hunters and conservation officers.
Beyond that, they delved into a large number of FSIN’s provincial concerns.
One of those topics is co-managing resources, which means “our water, our plants, our animals,” said Merasty.
“Like the woodland caribou are in danger – so sitting down and talking about a co-management agreement where we ensure that these plants and animals and our livelihoods are maintained, and none of these come to extinction,” he said.
Merasty said FSIN is taking cues from their chiefs, many of whom have requested cooperation with the province on environmental issues.
Protecting resources is something they can work together on, Wall said.
“I think that we can sit down together in the long term with the FSIN around some co-management issues and around ensuring that our Ministry of Environment is making a priority of the resource management they’d like to see on and off reserve and we agreed to have those discussions.”
The talks on Tuesday also zoned in on the need for better fire evacuation plans and northern roads.
Despite past tension between the two provincial representative bodies, Merasty pointed out the province and FSIN both want to see success for the people they represent.
In the past he says meetings with Wall and the government were few and far between, but now they’re committed to working together.
Part of the reason to be more cooperative and less adversarial, is that FSIN has a lot of allies with its issues, Merasty said. This includes support from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the United Nations, and municipalities.
“We’re not about just First Nations, we’re about building this province, this country, together. And certainly sitting down with the province is an excellent start,”
Merasty points out the province is in election mode already, so it’s not making any big commitments. In the meantime, he’s happy to establish trust with leadership.