Sawridge First Nation launches $5-billion suit

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Chief Walter Twinn, on behalf of the Sawridge Band and First Nation and its members, is suing the Town of Slave Lake, Northwestern Utilities Limited, as well as the federal and provincial governments, for more than $5 billion. This was revealed by a statement of claim registered with the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta in Edmonton.

"It's really just a notice to negotiate" an agreement for land that's owed to the band, he said. "The town has owed us land for 25 years, and so has the province, and we just filed [the court documents] to give notice."

The root of the problem, Twinn said, is proposed provincial legislation which threatens to put 10-year limitations on any land negotiations. He said that the band has tried to get payment from the province for land which was expropriated when Highway 88 was built through the reserve, "but time and time again, the province has given us a bureaucrat" instead of an answer. This is "just a notice that they can't do this." The province has failed to follow through on promises for land or financial remuneration to Sawridge.

Twinn is suing the Town of Slave Lake for land to replace the reserve land used by the town when it built portions of Caribou Trail and Airport Road, he said.

Northwestern Utilities is targeted because the band didn't get paid for a pipeline carrying natural gas from Mitsue Industrial Park, east of the town, to Slave Lake.

"I'm extremely optimistic about the tone of the talks" between the town and the band, said Slave Lake mayor Gerry Allarie, "and about the fact that both sides want to negotiate a settlement - and quickly."

Allarie said that he plans to make good on the town's debt to Sawridge before his term of office expires. The town took 0.25 hectares when it was building the roads. Allarie expects that negotiations will focus on how the town will replace reserve land.

"There is definitely a difference between reserve land and non-reserve land," the mayor said. There are several options, "but it all has to be weighed out and considered."

Other elements of the suit, originally served March 29, 1996, and amended Jan. 20 of this year, date back to problems almost 100 years old. Specifically, the suit alleges that the band "did not receive the land which Treaty 8 provides will be laid aside for them."

The treaty, drafted in 1899, promised that the federal government would set aside one square mile for each family of five, it says, and also pledged to deliver up 64 ha of land "to each Indian for such families or individual Indians as may prefer to live apart from band reserves . . .."

There's a shortfall of 2,460 ha of land which should have been set aside for the band under Treaty 8, it adds.

As well, the statement of claim says "between 1910 and 1912, 12 individuals were transferred by the [Indian Affairs Department] from the Alexander Band and First Nation to the Sawridge Band and First Nation." Those individuals, it says, were not counted when Treaty 8 was enacted, and therefore "plaintiffs claim entitlement to additional reserve lands of approximately 1,920 acres [768 ha] . . .."

Also, the claim says, financial compensation - in the amount of $2,294.23 - which should have accompanied those individuals, was inadvertently sent to the Driftpile Band "in approximately 1912."

The plaintiffs have never been compensated for this error and are therefore claiming the "$2,294.23 plus interest from the date of the transfer of these moneys . . .."

Further, the band says it handed about 19 ha to the province in 1974 when Highway 88 was being built. The province allegedly promised to transfer 19 ha of reserve land or 56 ha of non-reserve land to the band as payment, but "no lands were transferred by Alberta to the plaintiffs." The province later agreed to compensate the band for the delay, the statement continues, but to date no compensation is forthcoming.

The document says loss of rent and interest from these lands has costit $4 million.The Town of Slave Lake's actions cost the band further when the town built "two streets which encroach upon or cross the plaintiff's reserve." The streets were built without the band's permission or proper surrender of lands, it claims.

Further, it says, somewhere between 1970 and 1986, "the town constructed utility pipelines which encroached upon the plaintiff's reserve." The lines, it adds, carry gas, water and sewer. Again, the statement alleges, the "utilities were built without the permission of the plaintiffs and without a proper surrender by the plaintiffs."

It's claiming $1 million in damages for the province's and town's alleged failings in taking land for streets, and another $1 million for loss of "beneficial use of these lands, including loss of rent."

For the destruction of wildlife and other resources, as well as the conversion of natural resources, and for "interference with the Aboriginal use of the land including traditional activities, trap lines . . . and for interference with religious and burial sites and with culture, traditions and spiritual values" it's asking the courts to award $6.5 million to the band.

The band is also asking for $5 billion for long-term suffering as a result of the breaches by defendants over the years, and for the courts to award it interest payments on all the alleged infractions and court costs.