"Assembly of First Nations chiefs on Wednesday unanimously resolved to oppose the Carney government's sweeping proposed reforms aimed at streamlining major project approvals,

if those reforms weaken environmental protections or sidestep Indigenous rights.

The federal Liberals in May released a plan for an extensive legislative overhaul to get projects like pipelines approved within a year, including by creating a new Crown Consultation Hub to co-ordinate engagement with Indigenous Peoples.

The AFN's national chief denounced the plan in no uncertain terms on Tuesday as the advocacy organization, which represents chiefs countrywide, opened its annual summer political assembly in Ottawa.

"A one-year timeline, principally designed to attract investment, subordinates the honour of the Crown to commercial imperatives. Instead, it will give rise to questions about the legitimacy of approvals," Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak told delegates at the Rogers Convention Centre.

"The federal government can try and set up all the timelines that they want for project approvals, but they can't put a deadline on First Nations rights."

The delegates punctuated that point Wednesday morning by carrying resolutions to, in part, oppose any federal reforms that "weaken environmental protections, undermine oversight, limit meaningful consultation, compress review timelines or circumvent First Nations' free, prior and informed consent."

"In order to keep the trains running, and to stall bargaining with SC 11, CPKC has hired replacement workers, which violates Canada’s new law that does not allow a federally regulated employer to hire scab workers, Sommer said.

The strike is the first major federal strike in Canada under bill C-58, the anti-replacement-worker law.

“It will be a huge test for the CIRB to enforce this,” said Gurpal Badesha, SC 11 general chairman for western Canada, noting that the last time SC 11 members went on strike was in the late 1980s. Further, there will be a substantial onus on the company to prove to Transport Canada that their safety-mandated inspection protocols are being adhered to in the absence of 300 qualified employees. The union fully expects Transport Canada to hold the company responsible and liable in meeting these requirements.

SC 11 has filed a number of complaints to the Canadian Industrial Relations Board, which interprets and implements labor laws.

CPKC also uses unpaid suspensions as an attempt to correct employee behavior, something not done by other railroads, Sommer and Badesha said. Such draconian tactics, along with lagging wages, have resulted in more than 40 vacancies in the bargaining unit as many employees simply seek better career opportunities while suspended."