Getting to Common Ground: A Comparison of Ontario, Canada’s Provincial Policy Statement and the Auckland Council Regional Policy Statement with Respect to Indigenous Peoples

Abstract

Indigenous rights are crucial to contemporary land use planning and policy in settler states. This article comparatively analyzes the manifest and latent content of the 2014 Provincial Policy Statement (PPS) of Ontario, Canada and the 1999 Auckland Council Regional Policy Statement (ACRPS) of Aotearoa New Zealand in order to evaluate their relative capacity to recognize the rights of Indigenous peoples. While the results show that jurisdiction is an impediment to fostering common ground between Indigenous peoples and settler states, the authors conclude that the PPS and the ACRPS serve vital roles in building dialogue and equitable planning outcomes.

Exploring Indigenous newcomer relations in the City of Toronto: changing demographics, reconciliation and the capacity of city planning

“…Fraser & Viswanathan (2013) conclude that changing public perspectives will be critical to this process, and planning policies, including the PPS, can have a vital and transformative role in building dialogue and ensuring more equitable planning futures in the province of Ontario. McLeod et al (2017) argue that a shared planning approach can garner greater public understanding and recognition of Indigenous peoples' continued interest in the land and ensure that Indigenous peoples can actively define issues and solutions through mutual understanding and mutual learning as partners. This process means that there is a meaningful willingness on the part of non-Indigenous people to break with embedded cultural assumptions, understandings, relationships and ways of doing urban planning (McLeod et al 2017).…”

“…McLeod et al (2017) argue that a shared planning approach can garner greater public understanding and recognition of Indigenous peoples' continued interest in the land and ensure that Indigenous peoples can actively define issues and solutions through mutual understanding and mutual learning as partners. This process means that there is a meaningful willingness on the part of non-Indigenous people to break with embedded cultural assumptions, understandings, relationships and ways of doing urban planning (McLeod et al 2017).…”