A new Pickering consultation agreement will guide talks between the City and the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation on planning and development matters in Northeast Pickering.
MSIFN and the City of Pickering signed a Consultation Protocol Memorandum of Understanding for the Northeast Pickering Secondary Plan area. The agreement provides an interim framework while the parties work toward a longer-term consultation protocol.
Framework intended to clarify future engagement
According to a statement from MSIFN, the memorandum is intended to bring more clarity and certainty to how the First Nation and the City will communicate as future planning decisions and related studies arise.
The parties said they are committing to good-faith dialogue on municipal decisions that may affect MSIFN’s Aboriginal and Treaty rights. The interim framework will remain relevant while a more permanent consultation process is developed.
The agreement is a procedural step about engagement. It does not settle the planning questions connected to the Northeast Pickering Secondary Plan.
MSIFN says agreement is not support for development
MSIFN explicitly said the memorandum should not be interpreted as support for the secondary plan or for development in Northeast Pickering. The First Nation continues to maintain its concerns and legal positions regarding the plan.
Chief Kelly LaRocca said the agreement is meant to ensure MSIFN is not treated as an afterthought when decisions could affect its Treaty and Aboriginal rights to land. She said it creates a clearer route for continued dialogue without changing the First Nation’s concerns about the secondary plan.
The Pickering consultation agreement therefore establishes how discussions can proceed, while leaving the underlying positions of the City and MSIFN unchanged. Future decisions and studies in the plan area will be the subject of continued engagement under the interim framework and the longer-term protocol the parties intend to develop.
