Manitoba committee urges Ottawa, province to honour treaty agreement from the 1990’s

Brittany Hobson
APTN National News
A committee representing 15 First Nation communities in Manitoba is urging the federal and provincial governments to honour a treaty agreement from 20 years ago.

The Manitoba Framework Agreement (MFA) on Treaty Land Entitlement (TLE) was signed on May 29, 1997, by the Treaty Land Entitlement Committee (TLEC) of Manitoba, the provincial government, and the federal government.

The TLE outlines that various Treaty First Nations in Manitoba would receive a total of 450,000 hectares of land.

Twenty years later, less than half of the allotted land has been allocated to additional reserve lands under the MFA.

“There’s still land that is owed and outstanding to First Nation communities. Land that possibly would have given an economic boost to any community,” said Dennis White Bird, chief negotiator during the signing of the TLE.

Approximately 20,000 hectares of land has been set aside for 14 of the 15 First Nations entitled to receive land under the MLA. Barren Lands, in Northern Manitoba, is the only community that
hasn’t received any additional land.

Chris Henderson, executive director for the TLEC, said a slow transfer-of-land process is to blame for the delay.

“One of the challenges is the issue of surveying crown land in northern Manitoba,” said Henderson. “The estimated range to complete the survey of the remaining crown land selections for our 15 bands is between 17 to 30 years, and that will require a survey budget of $30 million to $50 million.”

White Bird agreed, but added government bureaucracy is playing a role as well.

“My First Nation communities that signed onto the agreement are basically handcuffed to a policy somewhere crafted in Ottawa, or to any kind of land management regime that’s under the provincial authority,” said White Bird.

“I think that’s one of the major problems you have two land management regimes that are in conflict with one another: you have federal and provincial. It creates a huge backlog in terms of trying to deal with the land transfer process and reserve land creation.”

During the 2015 federal election, Justin Trudeau promised to fast track the TLE process if he was elected. He said the transfer-of-lands would be completed in within the next decade.

Committee members said little has been done in the past year-and-a-half since the prime minister has taken office.

“The liberal party said they want to cut through red tape. A year-and-a-half into this campaign promise, we haven’t seen any proof of that. They haven’t cut through the red tape yet,” said Henderson.

White Bird says unless something is done immediately he expects the process to take another twenty years.

APTN reached out to Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett’s office and received this statement via email.

“INAC Manitoba region is working on a shared work plan which sets priorities for the next three years. We know that more has to be done, and we will continue to work in full partnership to fast track Treaty Land Entitlement in a timely manner to achieve true reconciliation with Treaty First Nations in Manitoba.”

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