Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre proposed a new plan Thursday for First Nations to collect taxes from industry that he says would speed up negotiations and project approvals.
The opt-in program would permit First Nations to collect 50 per cent of the federal taxes paid by industrial activities on their land, with industry getting a tax credit in exchange. He wrote on LinkedIn Thursday that any “own source revenue from resource extraction” would be used by the federal government to “cut community funding.”
The assembly is approaching the announcement “with caution,” said a Thursday news release, citing concerns about the approach of the last federal Conservative government under former prime minister Stephen Harper. Idle No More was a widespread Indigenous-led protest movement triggered in part by the Jobs and Growth Act, a sweeping and controversial omnibus bill introduced in 2012 by Harper’s majority government.