First Nations communities across Canada are struggling to combat violent crime, drug trafficking and other illegal activities because local authorities lack the power to enforce their own laws, according to a report submitted to a Senate committee.Blacklock's Reporter says the First Nations Lands Advisory Board is calling for expanded policing powers, warning that communities are facing an escalating enforcement crisis that threatens public safety and economic development.“First Nations are facing an enforcement crisis,” the board wrote in a submission to the Senate national security committee.The board said First Nations councils often lack the policing, prosecution and court resources needed to enforce local bylaws, leaving communities vulnerable to criminal activity.“Consequences are not theoretical,” the board wrote. “First Nations are confronting increasingly serious challenges including violence, homelessness and encampments, arson, drug-related activity and heightened risks during public health emergencies.”The submission warned that inadequate enforcement has consequences extending beyond public safety, including higher insurance costs, increased borrowing rates and reduced economic opportunities.“A lack of effective enforcement creates a haven for more serious illegal activity, increases insurance and borrowing rates and can discourage economic investments and partnerships,” the board said.“With each passing year, these gaps have compounded into an enforcement crisis that threatens community safety.”The concerns follow a 2022 Department of Public Safety study that found violent crime rates in some First Nations communities were as much as 16 times higher than those in other Canadian towns and hamlets.“Crime rates for First Nations and Inuit communities continue to be higher than in other Canadian communities,” stated the federal report, Evaluation Of The First Nations And Inuit Policing Program.The Lands Advisory Board said First Nations governments face obstacles enforcing even basic municipal-style regulations, including issuing tickets for violations.“These are ordinary enforcement mechanisms other governments in Canada use every day,” the board wrote.“First Nations should not have to wait years for equivalent tools to enforce their own laws and protect their communities.”.The board argued First Nations governments are being held to standards that would be unacceptable for other jurisdictions.“No non-indigenous government would reasonably be expected to establish a system of local laws without adequate access to police, prosecutors and courts capable of enforcing them,” the submission stated.“For too long First Nations have routinely confronted this exact situation.”The enforcement problems extend to illegal dumping, environmental protection, trespassing, unauthorized occupation of reserve lands, unsafe activities and landlord-tenant disputes.First Nations authorities also face difficulties enforcing public health regulations, construction standards, land-use approvals and measures intended to protect public infrastructure.The board submitted its concerns in support of Bill S-223, An Act to Amend the RCMP Act, a private Senate bill intended to strengthen RCMP enforcement of First Nations bylaws.The legislation received second reading in the Senate on June 11.Sen. Mary Jane McCallum of Manitoba, who sponsored the legislation, previously warned that the lack of enforcement powers has allowed drug dealers to operate in First Nations communities without facing consequences.“First Nations are unable to evict and prosecute drug dealers even when some of these dealers are not from the community where they are committing crimes,” McCallum told the Senate.“However these dealers continue to be empowered to bring drugs and alcohol into these reserves with impunity.”McCallum said the problem was affecting her own community, where residents have struggled to obtain police assistance.“This is happening on my reserve right now,” she said. “People are unable to do anything and the RCMP won’t respond.”The Lands Advisory Board maintains that without stronger enforcement mechanisms, First Nations communities will continue to face mounting public safety concerns while lacking the same legal tools available to other Canadian governments.
