HALIFAX - There will be protests across Canada, including road blockades, if Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault doesn’t compromise on his plan to overhaul the Indian Act, Native leaders warn.

"We’ll block the highway from Prince Edward Island to Vancouver," said Chief Lawrence Paul of the Millbrook First Nation, near Truro, NS.

"You haven’t got enough army, you haven’t got enough police to stop over 600 First Nations... We can bring Canada to a standstill, [but] we do not want to go that route."

Paul made the comment after 300 Chiefs at an Assembly of First Nations convention voted unanimously to urge Nault to stop consultations with Aboriginals on the changes.

About 1,000 delegates cheered as the resolution passed.

Matthew Coon Come, the assembly’s National Chief, backed Paul, saying he has blocked highways before and is prepared to do it again if Nault ignores Native wishes.

"National consultations will go forward as scheduled," Nault responded in a late statement. He invited the assembly, Canada’s largest Native advocacy group, to meet with him to discuss its potential involvement, "in an atmosphere of respect and mutual understanding."

Federal officials began gathering input in recent weeks despite the assembly’s boycott of the consultations.

The assembly’s Chiefs say they aren’t against replacing the 1876 Indian Act, but they resent being excluded from the earlier planning stages.

Nault says the changes would update Bands’ voting systems, balance the interests of residents on and off reserves and fine-tune local administration.

Chiefs have given him 30 days to abandon current talks and work with them to launch a process that better allows their input. It must focus more on self-government, Aboriginal and treaty rights, and pressing social and economic needs, the resolution said.

Otherwise, "the First Nations of Canada shall be forced to engage in an aggressive strategic plan of action at the local, national and international levels," the resolution said.

Ron Ignace, Chief of BC’s Skeetchestn Indian Band, says Nault’s efforts are needless "tinkering" with the act at the expense of more vital issues, including land claims and resource sharing.