Today, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, announced $600,000 in funding for 10 new initiatives under the.
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OTTAWA, ON, June 3, 2021 /CNW/ - Indigenous peoples have been stewards of our natural environment since time immemorial. The Indigenous Guardians Pilot recognizes the many lessons that can be learned from Indigenous partners across the country and relies on Indigenous experience and Traditional Knowledge to ensure lands and waters are protected for generations to come.
Indigenous Guardians initiatives enable First Nations to monitor ecological health, maintain cultural sites, and protect sensitive areas and species, while creating jobs. (CNW Group/Environment and Climate Change Canada)
Today, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, announced $600,000 in funding for 10 new initiatives under the Indigenous Guardians Pilot. Guardians act as the eyes and ears on the ground. These initiatives will enable First Nations to monitor ecological health, maintain cultural sites, and protect sensitive areas
In a section focused on biodiversity and the climate crisis, the 2021 federal budget shared in April contained a clear line: “Support Indigenous Guardians.” It was an explicit reference to the Guardians programs caring for lands across the country. The Indigenous Leadership Initiative (ILI), which bolsters Indigenous nationhood and culture via land stewardship and care, helps support the growing Guardians movement.
The nature conservation budget item, which proposed $2.5 billion over five years for climate and environmental work, acknowledged what has already been plain knowledge for centuries: Indigenous communities know best how to take care of the land and water. Guardians programs train individuals to be “the eyes and ears” of the land, speaking for their traditional territories in determining land and water use. Most importantly, the programs are run by and for Indigenous nations and their lands, rather than handed down from the federal government.
“I’m very relieved and very proud of all the hard work of our team and of all the leaders and Tahltans that have been advocating to protect this area for the decades,” Chad Norman Day, president of the Tahltan Central Government, said in an interview. “Mount Edziza is one of those areas, similar to the Stikine River, the Sacred Headwaters and Sheslay Valley, that is amongst the most sacred places to the Tahltan people culturally.” Skeena Resources, a mining company with several interests on Tahltan territory, agreed to surrender its claims on the mountain’s slopes for $5 million, roughly one-fifth of the market value, according to the company. The province paid half the bill and the federal government and NGOs, including the BC Parks Foundation and the Nature Conservancy of Canada, funded the remainder.
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He’d wake up from nightmares gasping for air.
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On Christmas Day, Pearson got home from work after piloting the tugboat Ingenika from Kitimat to Kemano, a trip that typically took him away from Prince Rupert for a day or two. Over breakfast with his family, he talked about making changes.
“The conditions in the winter were just too much,” said his wife, Judy Carlick-Pearson. “He wasn’t happy anymore.”
Pearson had recently asked his employer, Wainwright Marine Services, if he could work out of the company’s Prince Rupert yard instead of Kitimat. The couple had started an auto-detailing shop a month earlier and were waiting for it to generate enough income for Pearson to leave Wainwright all together.