First Nations’ legal action could mean ‘billions of dollars’
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/02/2019 (1862 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Manitoba First Nations are taking Ottawa to court over delays in a treaty implementation deal that was intended to speed up land claims that date back a century and a half.
The First Nations contend Ottawa broke its agreement – a 1997 deal under the Treaty Land Entitlement Committee that’s called the Manitoba Framework Agreement.
Since 2012, the land settlement’s been stalled by the prospect of competing Metis claims to some of the same parcels of land, according to the TLE committee.
The committee took the case over the 1997 agreement to a federal arbitrator, who ruled in their favour nearly a year ago and concluded Ottawa was in default of the deal.
Negotiations ground to a halt after Ottawa asked the TLE First Nations to consider accommodating the Metis, and the First Nations countered with a proposal to streamline urban reserve development in Manitoba.
The Treaty Land Entitlement Inc., along with 12 separate First Nations, filed a notice, called a notice of application, in federal court against Ottawa Wednesday.
The First Nations – Barren Lands, Buffalo Point, God’s Lake, Manto Sipi, Nisichawayasihk, Northland Dene, Norway House, Opaskwayak, Rolling River, Sapotaweyak, War Lake, and Wuskwi Siphk – rest on lands that range from the American border to Hudson Bay and west to Saskatchewan.
They want the court to release them from promises they signed subsequent to the 1997 agreement not to sue Ottawa over outstanding claims from treaties between 1871 and 1910, as long as Ottawa speeded up the process and settled the claims. Another seven First Nations signed on to the treaty implementation process but never signed the releases.
Some 535,000 acres of provincial Crown lands have been transferred since then and what’s at stake is the fate of the other 565,000 acres that First Nations feel they are entitled to claim.
If a federal judge sides with the notice, it could put Ottawa on the hook for billions of dollars, in damages related to the loss of use of the lands.
“The next process… is a judge will presumably hear the case and grant the declaration,” TLE Committee lawyer Harley Schachter said by phone Thursday.
“First Nations in Manitoba (would) be in a position to take action against Canada to recover their losses for not having the benefit and use of their lands from 1871,” the lawyer said.
“You don’t have to be a math wiz . . . it comes into the billions of dollars pretty quickly,” he added.
The legal action signals a breakdown of a key treaty process in Manitoba and comes at a sensitive time for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, and its reconciliation policy, in an election year.
“The MFA, while not a treaty itself, is a treaty implementation agreement. Included among its terms are terms that expressly identify the process and procedures that Canada is obliged to follow in fulfilling its . . . treaty land commitments,” the legal notice stated.
“The honour of the Crown is pledged to the fulfilment of the treaty promises and (it) requires Canada to diligently and purposefully implement the longstanding treaty land entitlements promises,” the notice stated.
Treaty Land Entitlement Committee president Nelson Genaille said it’s frustrating to think that First Nations could be generating millions in revenue from development, if they had access to lands they were promised.
Genaille, who is also the chief of the western Manitoba Cree nation of Sapotaweyak near Swan River, used his community’s two parcels of land in Swan River as an example.
One property is a building with a VLT lounge which took seven years of legal paperwork to settle and then get up and running. It now generates $7 million a year in gross economic spin-offs for the First Nation and the municipality, he said.
The other property is a lot across the street from Club Sap, big enough for a gas station which should generate another $6 million a year once it opens this summer.
“If I’m using those two properties and they generate $13 million a year in gross revenue, look at what’s left out. There’s 500,000 acres. That’s worth billions of dollars in loses in the use of land to us,” Genaille said.
He believes the delays are a deliberate stalling tactic. In recent months, the process has lost two key federal negotiators. One retired and the other went on French language training for two years.
“This government has been so slow in converting land,” Genaille said.
Court proceeding could take months but at the same time, the legal notice could also kickstart the moribund process and spur Ottawa to come back to the table.
That would work for the First Nations. A delegation is headed to Ottawa hoping to meet senior Trudeau cabinet ministers next week. The office for Indigneous Services Minister Seamus O’Regan was looking into the request last Thursday.
“My clients are happy to put (the case) aside for a just and honourable solution, that sees them get their treaty land entitlements sooner rather than later,” the TLE lawyer said.
Crown Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett was in Winnipeg last week to announce $1.9 million this fiscal year to Manitoba First Nations for nation-rebuilding efforts. Ottawa has yet to file court documents in response.
alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca