Danielle Smith opens door to amending constitution to alter treaty rights

OTTAWA — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she’s open to having a “conversation” with her fellow premiers about rewriting parts of the constitution relating to Indigenous treaty rights.

Smith told reporters on Friday that Section 35 of the constitution , which governs Crown-Indigenous relations, has been stretched beyond recognition by the courts.

She said that an Alberta judge’s decision earlier this month to throw out a petition for a binding referendum, on the grounds that the province failed to meet its duty to consult with First Nations, was a prime example of this overreach.

“I don’t even know what the court would expect of a citizen-initiated petition to satisfy a bar to a duty to consult before they can even ask a question,” said Smith.

Smith has vowed to appeal the ruling, and is inviting her fellow premiers to help prevent similar decisions in the future.

“It needs to be challenged, we’re going to and, if there’s an appetite among the other premiers to talk about defining that ever further through some kind of constitutional amendment, I’m opening to having that conversation,” said Smith.

Smith was taking questions from the media in Calgary after announcing on Thursday evening that she’ll be adding an independence-related question to the fall referendum ballot.

She noted that Alberta isn’t the only province grappling with overly broad judicial interpretations of treaty rights.

“My reading of (Section 35) is that it was never intended to continue being open-ended and redefined by the courts, to create new and increasing rights over and over again with each new decision,” said Smith.

“It was never intended to undermine property rights (or) to undermine the ability of provinces to have control over their resources.”

Her comments follow a series of controversial treaty-related decisions in British Columbia that critics say have created uncertainty surrounding the property rights of private landowners and the viability of major resource projects.

Multiple candidates in the ongoing B.C. Conservative leadership race have said they’ll amend the constitution to scale back Aboriginal title and inferred Indigenous veto powers over resource development.

Unlike B.C., Alberta is located entirely on numbered treaty land.

The Supreme Court announced this week that it will hear the appeal to a controversial B.C. decision finding that the province’s mining rules are inconsistent with Indigenous rights.

Smith said she’ll raise the issue of Indigenous treaty rights at a premiers’ meeting set for next week.

She’ll be putting four constitutional questions to Albertans in October’s provincial referendum, including questions on amending the constitution to give provinces more power over judicial appointments and to abolish the Senate.

National Postrmohamed@postmedia.com

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