For Immediate Release
21 July 2023
MHA Lela Evans (Torngat Mountains) is calling on government to act on the Calls for Justice and stop the continued socio economic marginalization of Indigenous peoples in her district. With the removal of the freight boat, and no connection by road, people in Torngat Mountains are facing ever-increasing cost of living, an inability to bring in materials and supplies for home improvements, and food scarcity fueled by climate change making access to traditional foods more difficult.
“I’m happy that Lewisporte is finally getting the support and resources for the coastal ferry being removed from the Labrador marine service early last year,” said Evans. “Moving the Labrador coastal freight service from Lewisporte was a significant economic blow. The government has been promising since 2018 to ensure diversification funding is in place to combat economic loss to the town.”
“However, the removal of the freight service was detrimental to both the North Coast of Labrador and the Town of Lewisporte. This could have all been avoided if the freight boat had been kept in service until the north coast is connected, if ever, by road.”
The government justified the need for this investment citing their commitment to work with the Lewisporte to mitigate the impacts of the freight boat no longer operating. Government made no mention of the impacts the removal of the freight boat caused for coastal Labrador, and if they intend to take action to reconcile this. The removal of the freight boat by the provincial government was in violation the Land Claims Agreement of the Nunatsiavut Government and the Innu Nation.
“Why does this government continue to fail to act on true reconciliation and ignore their duty to consult with Indigenous nations, and refuse to act on the Calls to Justice?” questioned Evans. “This liberal government doesn’t care about us – ask the Nunatsiavut Government, ask the Innu. The spirit of reconciliation is only found on t-shirt that the Liberals put on once a year.”
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For further information, contact Eddy St. Coeur, Director of Communications, NDP Caucus at 729-2137 (o), or eddystcoeur@gov.nl.ca
Call for Justice 1.3: Pursue the measures required to eliminate the social, economic, cultural, and political marginalization of Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people when developing budgets and determining priorities. https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/final-report/