- Part 1      - Part 2      - Part 3


The newly minted Conservative government promised many things during the recent campaign. Although aboriginal policy was barely touched upon, the Canadian Taxpayers Federations offers this, part-two of a three-part series examining of the Conservative's platform:

The Conservative government plans to pursue settlement of all outstanding "comprehensive claims" within a clear framework that balances the rights of aboriginal claimants with those of Canada.

Comprehensive land claims are based on the assertion of continuing aboriginal rights and claims to land that have not been dealt with by treaty or other means.

The comprehensive or treaty process currently involves a tripartite negotiation table. Meaning there are representatives from the relevant provincial government, federal government and specific Indian band. All the negotiators, lawyers, consultants, researchers and analysts - from all sides - are paid for by the taxpayer.

This funding relationship does not encourage or promote settlement. After all, why negotiate a settlement when the settlement results in the loss of your job. Furthermore, there are no deadline dates within the current process. Therefore, in some cases, negotiations for treaties have been on-going for several decades.

The new government needs to change this arrangement if they are every going to settle all outstanding comprehensive claims. One simple change to the process would be to establish deadlines for when treaties are to be finalized. The federal government could set a timeframe of five years for the parties to reach a negotiated settlement. If a settlement is not reached after five years, the federal government could impose a final treaty.

There will be a few who would criticize the imposition of treaties. They would say imposed treaties would not adequately address the needs of Indians. But how is the current system of long drawn out negotiations - that see no end in sight anytime soon - help the people living in native communities These people are left in a perpetual purgatory until negotiations are finalized. Surely an imposed treaty would be better than continuing the current process.

The Conservatives plan to adopt measures to resolve the existing backlog of "specific" claims so as to provide justice for aboriginal claimants, together with certainty for government, industry, and non-aboriginal Canadians. Resolve backlog of "specific" claims.

Specific claims arise from Canada's breach or non-fulfillment of lawful obligations found in treaties, agreements or statutes (including the Indian Act).

The federal government some 30 years ago waived the statute of limitations which prohibits other Canadians from taking a claim before the courts after a certain length of time (usually 6 years).
Hence why in January 2006, Ontario's Superior Court ruled the government of Canada owed almost $1.1 million to an Ontario native band for land it sold more than 100 years prior.

Clearly, the process of addressing alleged grievances needs to be substantially modified. Simply "fast-tracking" the process is not the answer.

Successive governments have provided benefits to native Canadians that were never contemplated in the treaties; benefits such as, welfare, economic development, post-secondary education, pensions, tax exemptions, medicare, etc.

The new government should take the various benefits into account when they determine settlements for specific claims. Of course this is highly contentious, however if not adequately addressed there will never be finality in dealing with past grievances. Therefore, the backlog of "specific" claims will never cease to exist.