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“This is something we need to get right,” Cam Broten says
The Saskatchewan government should join the growing number of other provinces and consider sharing natural resource revenue with First Nations, say experts.
“How do you reconcile if you don’t share the resources?” said Vancouver lawyer Tom Isaac, author of Aboriginal Law: Commentary, Cases and Materials. Isaac, a University of Saskatchewan law graduate who represents governments and resource companies, said any revenue sharing must be sustainable and measured, but the issue “is not going away.”
Resource revenue sharing hit the national stage last week when former Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations Chief Perry Bellegarde was elected to head the national Assembly of First Nations. In a fiery speech to AFN delegates in Winnipeg, Bellegarde vowed resource development would occur only after First Nations’ concerns were addressed.
“We weren’t meant to be poor in our own lands,” Bellegarde said. Saskatchewan’s Energy and Resources Minister, Bill Boyd, was not available for an interview this weekend. In a written statement, the government said its position has not changed.
“Our province’s resources belong to everyone in the province. Revenues from Saskatchewan’s resources belong to all Saskatchewan people, and everyone, including First Nations, benefit from that revenue,” read the statement.
Ken Coates, Canada Research Chair at the University of Saskatchewan’s Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, said other provinces, the courts and even resource companies are giving increased weight to aboriginal perspectives.
Newfoundland, Quebec and the territories have resource revenue sharing agreements with First Nations. The Ontario government has dedicated $30-million to setting up a system for revenue sharing. The most comprehensive deals are in B.C., where First Nations can receive as much as 37 per cent of resource project taxes.
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