Pictou Landing First Nations is a Mi'kmaq First Nation band government in Nova Scotia, Canada. Their territory spans five reserves that have a combined area of 527.6 hectares (1,304 acres). As of September 2017, the Mi'kmaq population is 485 on their own reserve, 23 on other reserves and 157 living off-reserve. [1]
The elective council system was adopted at Pictou Landing in 1951. [2]
Incumbent Chief Andrea Paul was re-elected for her third term as chief in November 2015 using the Indian Act election system. Six councillors were elected at the same time, three of them having served previously. 71 per cent of the 393 eligible voters cast ballots. Elections are held every two years. [3] [4]
Pictou Landing First Nation has five reserves, the only populated one being Fisher's Grant 24 at the mouth of Pictou Harbour and adjacent to Boat Harbour, a former tidal lake now part of the effluent treatment system for the pulp mill at Abercrombie Point. Facilities on this reserve include the band's administrative offices, fire hall, training centre, [5] and P–6 school. [6] The health centre was built in 2007 and its construction was inspired by traditional techniques used in longhouses and birch bark canoes. The truss system was built using long, slender greenwood trees lashed together with metal strapping. [7] [8] The exterior is clad with large spruce shingles. [9]
| Community | Area | Location | Population | Date established |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boat Harbour West 37 | 98.2 hectares (243 acres) | 8 km north of New Glasgow | 0 | May 18, 1961 |
| Fisher's Grant 24 | 142.7 hectares (353 acres) | 10 km north of New Glasgow | 485 | March 3, 1866 |
| Fisher's Grant 24G | 60 hectares (150 acres) | 3.2 km southeast of Pictou Landing | 0 | March 3, 1927 |
| Franklin Manor 22 (part) | 212.5 hectares (525 acres) | 32 km southeast of Amherst | 0 | March 3, 1865 |
| Merigomish Harbour 31 | 14.2 hectares (35 acres) | 12.8 km east of New Glasgow | 0 | March 3, 1865 |
Boat Harbour is a body of water formerly used by the First Nation. In the 1960s it was taken over by the Province of Nova Scotia for use as a settling pond for effluent from the nearby pulp mill. It quickly became polluted with heavy metals and organic chemicals and was the source of ongoing disputes between the First Nation and governments. The Boat Harbour Act 2015 set a deadline for closing the treatment facility no later than January 31, 2020, after which the site was to be cleaned up. This will involve removing an estimated 350,000 cubic metres (12 million cu ft) of contaminated material and returning the lagoon to a tidal estuary.
In a decision in the Provincial Court of Nova Scotia, Honourable Judge Del W. Atwood stated:
The undeniable truth is that the experience of the Pictou Landing First Nation has been one of subjugation and suppression under the Canadian federation. It shares this history with the other First Nations of Canada, as described succinctly in the Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. An instance of that injustice was the manner in which a pulp mill came to [be] located at Abercrombie Point in Pictou County fifty years ago; along with the mill was built an effluent-treatment plant in Boat Harbour. [10]
A 2013 study found that pollution, from both Boat Harbour and the exhaust stacks at the mill, has compromised access to traditional foods such as game, fish and berries, and dissuaded residents from growing gardens. This negatively impacted food security on the reserve. [11]
In December 2019 Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil turned down the pulp mill's request for an extension of the deadline to cease polluting the harbor. "The company has had five years and any number of opportunities," he said. "Cleaning up Boat Harbor is all my people have ever wanted," said Pictou Landing chief Andrea Paul. "Premier Stephen McNeil kept his promise and, on behalf of my community, we are thankful." [12]
Nova Scotia is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native English-speakers. The province's population reached 1 million in December 2021.
Pictou County is a county in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. It was established in 1835, and was formerly a part of Halifax County from 1759 to 1835. It had a population of 43,748 people in 2016, a decline of 4.2 percent from 2011. Furthermore, its 2016 population is only 88.11% of the census population in 1991. It is the sixth most populous county in Nova Scotia.
New Glasgow is a town in Pictou County, in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. It is situated on the banks of the East River of Pictou, which flows into Pictou Harbour, a sub-basin of the Northumberland Strait.
The Miꞌkmaq are a First Nations people of the Northeastern Woodlands, indigenous to the areas now known as Canada's Atlantic Provinces and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec as well as the northeastern region of Maine. They call their national territory Miꞌkmaꞌki. The nation has a population of about 170,000, of whom nearly 11,000 speak Miꞌkmaq, an Eastern Algonquian language. Once written in Miꞌkmaw hieroglyphic writing, it is now written using most letters of the Latin alphabet.
Pictou Town is a town in Pictou County, in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Located on the north shore of Pictou Harbour, the town is approximately 10 km north of the larger town of New Glasgow.
Annie Mae Aquash was a First Nations activist and Mi'kmaq tribal member from Nova Scotia, Canada. Aquash moved to Boston in the 1960s and joined other First Nations and Indigenous Americans focused on education and resistance, and police brutality against urban Indigenous peoples. She was part of the American Indian Movement, participated in several occupations, and participated in the 1973 Wounded Knee incident at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, United States.
Cole Harbour 30 is a Mi'kmaq reserve located in Nova Scotia, Canada, in the Halifax Regional Municipality.
Pictou Landing is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in Pictou County.
Boat Harbour West 37 is a Mi'kmaq reserve located in Pictou County, Nova Scotia.
Boat Harbour is a body of water on the Northumberland Strait in Pictou County, Nova Scotia. Originally a tidal estuary, construction of a pulp and paper waste effluent treatment facility in the 1960s led to the pollution of the harbour and the source of ongoing environmental concern. Treated water takes about 30 days to reach the Northumberland Strait. Since the treatment system began operation in 1967, Boat Harbour has become polluted with dioxins, furans, chloride, mercury and other toxic heavy metals. It is considered to be one of Nova Scotia's worst cases of environmental racism. In 2015, the Boat Harbour Act wrote into law that the pulp and paper mill cease effluent treatment no later than January 31, 2020; soon after this took effect, the mill closed indefinitely. The Boat Harbour Remediation Project aims to return Boat Harbour to its original state as a tidal estuary. Pilot scale testing has been completed and the project is undergoing a federal environmental assessment and cleanup is expected to begin in 2021.
Fisher's Grant 24 is a Mi'kmaq reserve located in Pictou County, Nova Scotia.
Merigomish Harbour 31 is a Mi'kmaq reserve located in Pictou County, Nova Scotia.
Franklin Manor 22 is a Mi'kmaq reserve located in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia. It is administratively split between the Pictou Landing First Nation and the Paq'tnkek First Nation.
Iain Thomas Rankin is a Canadian politician who served as the 29th premier of Nova Scotia from February 23, 2021, to August 31, 2021. He serves in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly for the Nova Scotia Liberal Party, representing the electoral district of Timberlea-Prospect. Rankin was first elected in the 2013 Nova Scotia general election and was re-elected in the 2017 general election. On February 6, 2021, Rankin was announced the Leader of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party.
Randy Delorey is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly in the 2013 provincial election. He was one of three candidates to succeed Stephen McNeil as the leader of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party and Premier of Nova Scotia. A member of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party, he represented the electoral district of Antigonish until 2021.
Ursula Johnson is a multidisciplinary Mi’kmaq artist based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Her work combines the Mi’kmaq tradition of basket weaving with sculpture, installation, and performance art. In all its manifestations her work operates as didactic intervention, seeking to both confront and educate her viewers about issues of identity, colonial history, tradition, and cultural practice. In 2017 she won the Sobey Art Award.
Pictou Harbour is a natural harbour in Nova Scotia on the Northumberland Strait.
The Confederacy of Mainland Mi'kmaq is a Tribal Council in Nova Scotia, Canada. It was incorporated in 1986 and has its main office at Millbrook First Nation. It delivers community programs and advisory services to its members. It has eight member communities; Annapolis Valley, Bear River, Glooscap, Millbrook, Paq'tnkek, Pictou Landing, Sipekne'katik, and Acadia, the last of which joined in 2019.
The East River of Pictou is a Canadian river located in Pictou County, Nova Scotia.
The Middle River of Pictou is a Canadian river located in Pictou County, Nova Scotia.