New report slams Canada’s Impact Assessment Act as colonial and high-risk – ElliotLakeToday.com
September 12, 2025
The Anishnawbe Business Professional Association has thrown its support behind a powerful new position paper that calls for sweeping reforms to Canada’s Impact Assessment Act, arguing the current system fails to uphold true Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples
The Anishnawbe Business Professional Association (ABPA) today announced its full endorsement of a new position paper by Waawoono Consultancy, titled Forging a New Paradigm: Rights, Reconciliation, and the Future of Impact Assessment in Canada. The paper provides a critical analysis of Canada’s current project assessment model and argues that it is structurally flawed, creating a high-risk environment for Indigenous nations, proponents, and investors alike.
The paper compellingly argues that Canada’s Impact Assessment Act (IAA), despite its commitment to Reconciliation and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in its preamble, remains misaligned with a true nation-to-nation relationship. Waawoono’s analysis demonstrates that the Act’s retention of unilateral Crown authority and its treatment of Indigenous rights as factors to be “considered” rather than as determinants of outcomes perpetuates a colonial dynamic that generates conflict and financial risk.
