This presentation explores Marten Falls First Nation’s (MFFN) and Webequie First Nation’s (WFN) experience leading three major road projects in Ontario’s Ring of Fire (RoF) area as proponents. It provides insight into how MFFN and WFN are navigating opportunities and challenges with consultation and engagement activities that are essential to the projects. The three projects – Marten Falls Community Access Road (CAR), the Northern Road Link (NRL), and the Webequie Supply Road (WSR) – will connect the RoF area and the two communities to the provincial highway network and the rest of Ontario. The projects will offer transit linkages to make goods and services more accessible and facilitate economic development and reconciliation more broadly.
The session will show how the two communities are applying innovative and interdisciplinary tools to facilitate dialogue, responding to key challenges like capacity issues and misinformation, and managing diverse expectations around development. In doing so, community representatives and their advisors will share lessons learned and provide insight into how to make consultation and engagement more accommodating and inclusive.