Huge court win for Lac La Ronge

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The Lac La Ronge Indian band has won a landmark court decision that could result in more than 750,000 acres of Crown-owned land being turned over to band members.

Court of Queen's Bench Justice Frank Gerein ruled Nov. 30 that the federal and provincial governments underestimated Treaty Land Entitlement payments, which were intended to satisfy the terms of Treaty 6, an agreement signed more than a century ago in 1889. In his ruling, Justice Gerein concluded that the band's Treaty Land Entitlement (TLE) should have been calculated using the band's current membership of 6,900.

Instead, the TLE was calculated using population figures that existed when the band's reserves were first surveyed. Both the federal and provincial governments are expected to appeal the decision.

Under the terms of the 1976 treaty entitlement agreement, each band member was to receive 128 acres of land as compensation for Treaty 6. Using that formula, Gerein concluded that the total compensation owed to the 6,900 members of the Lac La Ronge band was about 883,000 acres. After subtracting existing reserve lands from that total, Gerein concluded that Lac La Ronge band members are still owed the equivalent of 776,000 acres. That's an area roughly the size of the Prince Albert National Park.

While Gerein's ruling was celebrated by Lac La Ronge band members, other Saskatchewan band members are now wondering if their TLEs were also underestimated.

So far, a total of 28 Saskatchewan Indian bands have signed the $516 million TLE framework agreement.

Jim Jodouin, the lawyer for the Lac La Ronge band, said Gerein's ruling is a huge victory for Lac La Ronge band members. The ruling offers band members much more than they would have received under the TLE agreement, he said.