nuclear-news

Mi’kmaw Chiefs send stinging rebuke to N.S. Premier Tim Houston

Background, by Gordon Edwards

Canada currently has 220 million tons of radioactive sand-like uranium mill tailings.

These radioactive wastes from past mining have an effective half-life of 76,000 years.
Uranium Mining has been banned in Nova Scotia since 1981. Initially it was a government moratorium. The moratorium was enshrined into law in 2009 as “

The Uranium Mining and Exploration Prohibition Act”. (

The provinces of British Columbia and Quebec have also imposed moratoria on uranium mining.)

The Mi’kmaq are an Indigenous group of people who are native to the Atlantic Provinces of Canada.

They are the founding people of Nova Scotia and the predominant Aboriginal group in the province

by Joan Baxter, March 4, 2025

The Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs have sent a stinging rebuke to Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston over recent legislation that would remove the longstanding bans on fracking and uranium mining and exploration in Mi’kma’ki, the unceded land of the Mi’kmaq.

The chiefs say it is “unacceptable that this government is fast-tracking the extraction of natural resources that will permanently devalue and damage our unceded lands and adversely impact the exercise of our section 35 rights.”

The strongly worded reprimand came in a two-page letter dated March 4, 2025, signed by the three co-leads on environment, energy, and mining for the Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn (KMK): Chief Carol Potter, Chief Cory Julian, and Chief Tamara Young. KMK works on behalf of the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq Chiefs on the best ways to implement Aboriginal and treaty rights.

The letter is addressed to Houston, with copies to Minister of L’nu Affairs Leah Martin and Minister of Natural Resources Tory Rushton. It refers to omnibus Bill 6, An Act Respecting Agriculture, Energy and Natural Resources, which Houston’s Progressive Conservative government tabled on Feb. 18, 2025.

Omissions are ‘highly erosive’

The chiefs noted that the new legislation is not in keeping with Section 35 of Canada’s 1982 Constitution Act that protects the Aboriginal and treaty rights of the Mi’kmaq people of Nova Scotia, and includes hunting, fishing, and gathering for a moderate livelihood. They wrote:

Last week’s sweeping legislative proposal is another example of the provincial government choosing not to engage or consult with the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia prior to introducing significant changes in the mining sector that will directly impact the Mi’kmaq’s section 35 rights.

The province also sits at several tables with KMK and the Assembly where these changes should have been discussed but were never raised or flagged for us. From a relationship perspective, these types of repetitive omissions are highly erosive.

The chiefs reminded Houston that in October last year, they wrote to him about the “province’s lack of engagement with Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn (KMK) and the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs” in the lead-up to Bill 471 on offshore wind.

They also pointed out that the Mi’kmaq played a large role in getting uranium mining and fracking banned in the province………………………………………………………………….. https://tinyurl.com/4p9y2cr3.

March 8, 2025 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | indigenous issues