Native people and the environmental regime in the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement

A major objective of the Cree and Inuit in signing the 1975 James Bay and N orthern Quebec Agreement was to protect the environment and thus secure the ir way of life based on harvesting activities. The main elements of the fed eral, provincial, and Agreement environmental protection regimes are compar ed with respect to principles derived from the growing literature on indige nous peoples and environmental assessment. The Agreement contained pioneeri ng provisions for environmental assessment; yet those provisions have not m et many of the expectations of the Native people. Part of the dissatisfacti on derives from the Agreement itself: some sections are vague and difficult to translate into practices; the advisory committee structures are not wel l suited to Native cultures; and the right to develop is woven throughout t he sections on environmental protection. However, failures and delays in im plementing the Agreement have also contributed to this dissatisfaction. The se issues have implications for the negotiation strategies of other groups.