Land claim costs top $12 billion

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The federal government alleges Native land claims and settlements would cost at least $12 billion, and that doesn't include the cost of self-government.

According to a section of the Public Accounts of Canada, the government has budgeted for $10.7 billion for expropriation of land claimed by Natives and other claims

in a total of 85 lawsuits, a Toronto newspaper recently reported.

Native settlements and claims in the two territories will add at least another $1.2 billion, the documents show.

Amounts for compensation of another 134 lawsuits are not specified, the document says. At this time, it's not possible to estimate potential costs of another 238 claims.

A minority of the claims date back to 19th century treaties and involve federal officials' mismanagement of Indian reserves.

The rest are comprehensive land claims, mostly from British Columbia, where Natives did not sign away land or resource rights through treaties.

Substantial opposition to the referendum package in B.C. is blamed in large part on concerns about the cost of Native self-government.

But these claims are unrelated to self-government sections of the constitutional package, says Richard Van Loon, a senior assistant deputy minister in the Indian and northern affairs department.

Funds involved in a self-government would be the $4 to $5 billion already distributed to Natives through the department and other agencies, said Van Loon.