Chiefs, Cabinet At Impasse Over Revenue Sharing
Wednesday, June 08, 2011 at 15:19
The first-ever bear pit session between First Nations leaders and the provincial government has wrapped up.
This morning at a Regina hotel, Premier Brad Wall and members of his cabinet fielded questions from chiefs for over an hour.
Responses were limited to just three minutes, prompting some chiefs to declare the time limit was too short.
Still, a number of questions were delivered to the government over issues including economic development, education, the tobacco tax, roads and bureaucratic red tape.
The main issue discussed was resource revenue sharing.
Chief Glen Pratt of the Gordon First Nation said he’s tired of seeing potash companies mine Treaty 4 land without giving back to the communities.
Pratt told the cabinet representatives: “We’ve seen the potash industry come to our territory over 40 years ago. To this day, we have not seen one penny come to our communities, come to our children, come to our families.”
In response, Wall told Pratt: “With respect to resource wealth in the province, everybody benefits from it — everybody. Yes they do, sir. Here we’re going to respectfully disagree. If there is services available to the public, they’re paid for from resource revenue.”
There was also a perception communicated by many First Nations leaders in attendance that the government is not consulting them enough over developments on their land.
Chief Todd Peigan of the Pasqua First Nation said his band received zero consultation from the government over a number of projects.
Peigan said: “Potash development, the use of Pasqua First Nation’s lands for water and also Sasktel Crown Corporation using Pasqua First Nation’s lands for fibre optics, on firing up the 3G networks for the cell phones. No one contacted us, no one consulted us . . .”
The government agreed to meet with the chief over those issues privately.
The Premier said there is a lot of work to be done on the issue, but he does not see his government adjusting the Natural Resource Transfer Agreement of 1930.
Wall told those gathered: “I will say that the position of the government of Saskatchewan with respect to the NRTA has not changed from previous administrations, or changed from our first days in office. Here we’re not going to agree, I think, and the courts have been involved in determining the scope of the NRTA as it regards First Nations and treaty and we’re prepared to stand with those decisions.”
First Nations and Metis Relations Minister Ken Chevaldayoff said the government continues to follow the consultation policy framework that is in place for dealing with the duty to consult issue.