Mi’kmaq Confederacy PEI

Mandate

The Board of Directors of the Mi’kmaq Confederacy of PEI (the Confederacy) has granted the organization the following mandates:

Aboriginal and Treaty Rights Forum:

The Confederacy is the common forum and united voice advancing Treaty and Aboriginal rights for the Lennox Island and Abegweit First Nations.

Tribal Council:

The Confederacy is a tribal council that provides advisory services to member First Nations Councils in five key areas: band governance; community planning; financial; economic development; and technical services.

Provincial Territorial Organization (PTO):

The Confederacy serves as a provincial forum for the Lennox Island and Abegweit First Nations on political and policy issues.

Intergovernmental Affairs:

The Confederacy bridges the gap between the Mi’kmaq and the Federal and Provincial Governments to support the Mi’kmaq people on PEI, focusing on three priority areas: the Partnership Agreement, the Duty to Consult and Aboriginal and Treaty rights issues.

AAROM to provide PEI Mi’kmaq governments with the capacity and tools required to support their effective participation and engagement with DFO and others in aquatic resource and oceans management.

Our Story

The Integrated Resource Management Program

The Integrated Resource Management Program is responsible for the management and implementation of Mi’kmaq Confederacy of PEI (“the Confederacy”) programs and projects related to strengthening PEI First Nations fisheries and resource management capacity, in addition to advancing First Nations involvement in natural resources.

The major program in our division continues to be the Aboriginal Aquatic Resource Ocean Management Program (AAROM), a Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) sponsored project. Its major goal is to build capacity in fisheries and watershed management issues. This program supports the vast majority of the projects in which we are involved. The Atlantic Integrated Commercial Fisheries Initiative (AICFI) program is part of our group, and provides direct support to the Fisheries program in each First Nation.

Highlight Project

Both First Nations are now involved in Aquaculture projects, ensuring sustainable fisheries into the future. Abegweit is has converted their fish hatchery to a recirculation system.This reuses water and is environmentally friendly. They are also pursuing opportunities, with our assistance, in scallop and oyster aquaculture. Lennox Island has rebuilt the shellfish hatchery at their facility at Bideford. The Bideford Shellfish Hatchery, located in the Bideford River Marine Centre is set to grow over 20 million oyster spat. Most will be sold, but some will feed into their own growout operation.

Climate Change is impacting First Nation communities through storm surge, erosion, change in diversity of species, and change in fishing seasons. We continue to work with government organizations to work on methods of adaptation to deal with these issues. We have completed a three year study on adaptation and, in 2017, we were successful in getting another three-year Adapt Climate change project.

Through one-on-one mapping and interview sessions, we continued a land use program that records Mi’kmaq use of the lands and waters of PEI for resource harvest. This allows us to look at proposed development projects in consultations and ensure that the proposed activities will not impact First Nations in any way. An agreement was signed in 2017, establishing a customary justice program, in conjunction with the Mi’kmaq Confederacy Indigenous Justice Program, in the fisheries.