--- On Mon, 3/19/12, RDIABO <rdi...@rogers.com> wrote:
From: RDIABO <rdi...@rogers.com> Subject: First Nations' leader wants more resource revenue To: undisclosed-recipi...@yahoo.com Received: Monday, March 19, 2012, 12:07 AM Sun Mar 18, 06:10 PM First Nations' leader wants more resource revenueCTVNews.ca Staff Assembly of First Nations national chief candidate Perry Bellegarde, Chief of the Little Black Bear First Nation of Saskatchewan, carries a feather as he leaves the hall with his wife Valerie Galley after the fourth ballot results were announced at the AFN's annual general assembly in Calgary, Thursday, July 23, 2009.(Jeff McIntosh/THE CANADIAN PRESS) A Saskatchewan First Nations leader says Canada's indigenous people haven't received their fair share of the country's lucrative natural resource revenues and hopes that will change in the wake of a critical UN report. Little Black Bear First Nation Chief Perry Bellegarde made the comments after a United Nations committee last week criticized Canada's treatment of its First Nations. "Right now, Saskatchewan and industry enjoy the benefits from all the natural resource wealth and nothing is coming back to the indigenous people," Bellegarde told CTVNews.ca. That wasn't the intention of First Nations when they signed dozens of land treaties with the Crown more than 100 years ago, Bellegarde said. "We said we'd share this territory with our non-indigenous brothers and sisters under treaty. We didn't give up everything," he said. "So we still have to deal with this issue of resource revenue sharing because it's unfinished treaty business." The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination last week had harsh words for Canada's record with First Nations, saying it has failed to properly respect land and treaty rights of indigenous people. It accused Canada of adopting "rigidly adversarial positions" in land negotiations, and it said decisions over resource development are often made without properly consulting affected First Nations. The committee made a number of recommendations, including: to create a treaty commission, examine high incarceration rates of indigenous people, and ensure adequate child welfare services on reserves. The United Nations rates Canada's quality of life as sixth-highest in the world. But when the same indicators are applied to Canada's native population, it comes in at 63rd. Bellegarde said the UN recommendations -- if implemented -- would help close the gap in living standards between First Nations groups and non-aboriginal Canadians. Most pressing, he said, is the need for a national treaty commissioner. That position would ensure that aboriginal people reap some economic benefits from natural resources. In Saskatchewan, the potash and uranium industries have earned billions for industry and government coffers. "The issue is poverty," Bellegarde said. "There's a huge socio-economic gap. And we have to have access to the resource wealth as well, so that we can have proper schools on our reserves . . . proper housing, proper access to library resources, proper access to recreation facilities. "That's what it's about because there is a huge cost to poverty." In January, a First Nation in southeastern Saskatchewan filed a multibillion-dollar lawsuit claiming the band was denied billions from oil and potash developments. The claim by the George Gordon First Nation was against the provincial and federal governments. The band said it should have been consulted about several projects under a treaty land deal signed in August 2008. In February, Bellegarde was part of a contingent of First Nations leaders who addressed the UN committee on racial discrimination. Canada is a signatory to an international treaty working toward the elimination of racial discrimination. The UN committee is the independent expert body that oversees compliance with that treaty. Canada was asked to report back in a year on the progress it's made on implementing the committee's recommendations. With files from The Canadian Press
