Another road to reconciliation

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/07/2023 (795 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Most of the treaties signed between Canada and its First Nations include annual payments or annuities paid to individuals. When signed in the late 1800s, $4, a typical amount, could provide the supplies for seasonal hunting.

Now this amount is laughably pitiful. A modern annuity raises the value and represents a payment from Canada to First Nations for the right to use the land, becoming, in effect a rental payment.

What do $184 million, a gold mine revenue sharing agreement, and the payment of back-due treaty annuity payments have in common? They are but three strands to the reconciliation story between Canada and its First Nations citizens and the modern annuity could play a key role.

Let’s begin with the more disheartening thread. The estimated cost of searching a Winnipeg landfill site for the remains of two Indigenous women presumed to be the victims of a brutal murder is $184 million. In total four women lost their lives, one of whose remains were discovered in a dumpster, leading police to conclude the other three remains are also in a landfill.

After initially rejecting the idea of searching the landfill as infeasible, since months had passed and the remains would be under tons of garbage as well as clay used to minimize the off-gassing of methane, government has agreed to proceed to fund the search.

Here is the issue. It is not the price tag of the search. It is simply one of the many costs we bear due to reconciliation delayed. More to the point is how and why so many Indigenous women come lose their lives in the big city? Some point to colonialism, misogyny, and racism as root cases, and while true these generalities offer little concrete resolution. Better policing and increased social service are certainly part of a policy response, but at the core is poverty.

Updating the annuity provisions embedded in many treaties is one way to address Indigenous poverty, but before elaborating that idea, let’s examine the other two more positive strands as they also related to a modern annuity.

Matthew Colomb First Nation recently signed a deal with Alamos Gold for revenue sharing and other economic development benefits stemming from the development of gold mines around Lynn Lake, Man. It resembles other agreements signed by First Nations situated close to mineral and other resources.

Here is the issue. Many First Nations in Canada are not so fortuitously situated. Most residents in such communities have few economic and social prospects, resulting in a steady migration to cities. Estimates based on the 2021 census place Canada’s urban First Nation population at 40 per cent of all First Nations peoples in Canada.

This number will surely rise, with most First Nations peoples eventually living in Canada’s cities by 2050. The key problem is that First Nations governments on reserves do not or cannot offer services to their members living in the city. These people fall through the social service cracks.

The third strand pertains to a major lawsuit seeking arrears for a treaty violation. In 2021, the Ontario Court of Appeal affirmed the validity of annuity augmentation (regular increases) included as part of the Robinson Huron and Superior Treaty. The lawsuit seeks a lump sum payment for these missed increases. Ontario had intended to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court of Canada with a hearing to begin in November 2023, but a recent settlement will see $10 billion shared among 21 First Nations.

Here is the issue. Many First Nations have no treaty. This is what “unceded” territory means in land acknowledgments. These First Nations persons benefit neither from treaty annuity augmentation nor the revenues from resource sharing. This is where the modern annuity has a crucial role.

Two colleagues and I have proposed the modern annuity be set at $8,000 annually, payable to registered individuals upon the 18^th birthday and continuing until death. It would not be taxable but included in the calculation for social assistance and child benefits. Like the Child Benefit, the Canada Revenue Agency would administer it; to receive the funds, one needs to file a tax return. Most importantly, the modern annuity represents a payment to the individual and not the community, targeting poverty reduction precisely.

Would such an annuity have saved Rebecca Contois, Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran, and Buffalo Woman? Maybe not. Large gaps in social services and high unemployment mean that many Indigenous people live in the margins of urban society. But is it certainly a start.

Critically, if viewed as a payment for the right to use the land, it represents a real gesture toward concrete reconciliation and something worthwhile to ponder.

Gregory Mason is an associate professor of economics at the University of Manitoba.