News & Events
SCO makes TLE recommerndations
April 15, 2009
The Grand Chief of the Southern Chiefs' Organization wants a specific course of action undertaken immediately so that Manitoba First Nations receive Treaty lands much more quickly.
The federal government's neglect of First Nations in Manitoba was confirmed this spring in the Auditor General's report, which once again detailed how land transfer progress lags far behind Saskatchewan.
Four years ago the Auditor General (AG) identified specific deficiencies. This year, in a follow-up analysis, the AG found key deficiencies had gone uncorrected. Also, some problems were made worse by the continual upheaval in the Manitoba office for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, which has gone through four regional directors during the last couple of years.
"Confusion and disruption within INAC is part of the problem - a big part - but the provincial government must also shoulder a lot of blame," says SCO Grand Chief Morris Swan Shannacappo. "So must Manitoba Hydro, the provincial Crown corporation, which seems to have its fingers everywhere."
"If TLE moved forward much more quickly, First Nations could play a much bigger role in providing Canada and Manitoba both short-term and long-term economic stimulus."
In 2005 the federal AG described how conversion of land to reserve status was much more advanced in Saskatchewan. About 90 per cent of Treaty Land Entitlement (TLE) claims are in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. TLE involves shortfalls in land promised under Treaty.
"Both INAC Minister Chuck Strahl and Premier Gary Doer need to sit down with us and get this file moving quickly. I have a definite proposal, so let's discuss it and move ahead," Swan Shannacappo said.
"The issue is not as huge or as difficult as it has been made out to be. After all, TLE claims, for all First Nations collectively, account for less than 1% of Manitoba's land mass."
Chief Swan Shannacappo made the following recommendations:
· The Treaty Land Entitlement Committee of Manitoba plays important roles in assisting First Nations to implement the TLE Framework Agreement; moving forward in developing lands and meeting related legal and bureaucratic requirements. The office needs a consistent funding commitment. Currently funding is year to year, which is an impediment to long-term planning, because staff never know whether they will be around to work on a file after the fiscal year ends.
· Strahl must make the bureaucratic stability and adequate resourcing of the INAC office in Manitoba a major priority and move forward to make achievement of TLE targets an absolute goal.
· More sophisticated goals for TLE settlements must be established. The existing goal is the transfer to reserve status 150,000 acres per year. INAC met that goal in 2007 but fell short by almost 400% in 2008. It succeeded in 2007 was that one parcel in northern Manitoba accounted for nearly 40% of total volume.
· Acreage totals are a measuring stick that favors transfers of large packages, which are usually in the North where Crown land is abundant. The bureaucracy will try to meet that goal in the simplest way, which is to process a small number of large claims. Given the lack of personnel and organizational competence in Manitoba, transfers in Southern Manitoba will be neglected. A more sophisticated system of measurement - one that includes numbers of parcels and total value of land - must be developed.
· MKO Grand Chief Sydney Garrioch and Grand Chief Swan Shannacappo understand the difference in situations and are committed to co-operating with each other.
· Land transfers are important to the entire Manitoba economy. When TLE lands are transferred - including small parcels in urban areas or along major truck or train routes - First Nations enterprises will flourish and this will bolster the entire economy.
· First Nations developments should be seen as part of the federal economic stimulus. Our businesses will be Manitoba owned enterprises that re-invest in Manitoba.
· First Nations were not adequately included in the economic stimulus. However, TLE development could be used for short and long-term economic stimulus.
· The AG's report detailed a variety of bureaucratic requirements, such as multiple surveys and other redundancies, that add to TLE transfer time, which in Manitoba averages five to seven years, sometimes more than a decade. In Saskatchewan the process has been quicker and more effective.
· The federal AG's report audited only the federal government's performance. It did not evaluate the province. However there are actions the province could take in terms of working with municipalities and Manitoba Hydro to facilitate quicker TLE transfers. Although the provinces were not audited, the report did described Saskatchewan as having fewer roadblocks within the provincial bureaucracy;