Abstract
Indigenous rights are crucial to contemporary land use planning and policy in settler states. This article comparatively analyzes the manifest and latent content of the 2014 Provincial Policy Statement of Ontario, Canada (PPS) and the 1999 Auckland Council Regional Policy Statement of Aotearoa New Zealand (ACRPS) in order to evaluate their relative capacity to recognize the rights of Indigenous peoples. While the results show that jurisdiction is an impediment to fostering common ground between Indigenous peoples and settler states, the authors conclude that the PPS and the ACRPS serve vital roles in building dialogue and equitable planning outcomes.
Highlights
First Nation reserves in Ontario, Canada, many located along borders of urban local governments3, have and continue to be controlled under federal jurisdiction and the restrictive confines of the Indian Act (MAH, 2009; RCAP, 1996)
Results are presented in two major parts—the current Ontario Provincial Policy Statement (PPS) (2014) and the Auckland Council Regional Policy Statement (ACRPS) (1999)
Keeping with the context of Indigenous peoples-state relations in Southern Ontario and the Auckland Region, findings from the analytical framework relating to the PPS refer to First Nations, while findings relating to the ACRPS refer to Māori people, iwi, Mana Whenua or Tangata Whenua
Summary
First Nation reserves in Ontario, Canada, many located along borders of urban local governments, have and continue to be controlled under federal jurisdiction and the restrictive confines of the Indian Act (MAH, 2009; RCAP, 1996). The provincial government exercises jurisdiction over off-reserve lands, including traditional territories and lands under specific treaties. The integration of provincial land use policies concerning First Nations peoples in Ontario is both significant and long overdue. Strategic direction from the province tiers down to local authorities, but in certain areas of Southern Ontario, lower-tier local governments must account for the PPS, four provincial plans, and higher-tier plans in their day-to-day planning decisions. It is posited that in order to fully comprehend the strengths and limitations of the PPS in relation to the rights of First Nations, there is a benefit to moving beyond relative assessment of federal policies across nations and to carrying out an international comparison with a regional plan from another settler state
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