Land talks stalled

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The often strained relationship between the Lubicon Lake Nation, the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and the province of Alberta has become rockier over the summer and it seems the Lubicon won't be getting the reserve that was promised them in 1939 any time soon.

Land negotiations have reached an impasse because the Lubicons believe both levels of government are circumventing a 1980 social assistance funding agreement between the federal government and themselves. The Lubicons have walked away from talks until they know the federal government will cover social assistance for all their members who need it while the land title question is being settled.

They maintain that stance even though on Aug. 22 Indian Affairs reversed a recent decision to cut social assistance funding to two communities. The department now says it will maintain the status quo until a departmental review is completed. The Lubicon Nation, however, is afraid the government will change its mind after an election, so they won't discuss land issues again until the department makes a final decision whether it will honor the 1980 agreement.

The Lubicon people have always lived on their traditional territory in the Peace River area of northern Alberta, and now their primary areas of settlement are in Little Buffalo, Peerless Lake and Trout Lake.

According to Lubicon Lake Nation spokesman Fred Lennarson, who spoke to Windspeaker on Aug. 25, in 1980 the federal government said it would provide funding for all Lubicon members through the Lubicon band council in Little Buffalo, regardless of where they live. This is contrary to the usual federal practice of providing funding only to Indians who live on reserves. The exception continued until May, when Indian Affairs' regional director general Barrie Robb informed Chief Bernard Ominayak that as of September the Lubicon people residing outside of Little Buffalo would have to apply directly to the provincial government for social assistance. Lubicon people who live in Little Buffalo would still be covered by federal funding.

In correspondence between the Lubicons and the department, Robb said the reason for the reversal of policy was a 1991 agreement Indian Affairs has with Alberta Family and Social Services, which sets out federal and provincial responsibilities for social assistance expenditures.

Yet in 1996, two years after a previous federal review, the department decided to continue support to Peerless Lake and Trout Lake residents.

In a July 20 letter to the chief, Robb stated, "The Lubicon nation has, for several years, been the only First Nation which has been reimbursed for the expenditure of social assistance in areas which fall outside of federal program authority." He cited the requirement "to adhere to financial authorities and policy directions stipulated by Parliament" as the reason for the change this year.

Ominayak complained to Robb and to Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Robert Nault that not only were the Lubicons not consulted about the 1991 agreement, but since they are not signatories of Treaty 8 it has nothing to do with them anyway. Morover, he said the department and the province have no right to arbitrarily designate Little Buffalo a "reserve" without Lubicon consultation and agreement.

In Appendix III to the 1991 agreement, Little Buffalo is designated a de facto reserve.

Neither Robb, the Minister of Indian Affairs nor other departmental officials named by Lennarson as exerting influence in the situation responded to Windspeaker's requests for interviews.

Ken Boutillier, assistant deputy minister of Aboriginal relations for the province, and also named by Lennarson as a key individual involved, likewise could not be reached for comment. A spokeswoman for Boutillier said these matters fell within federal jurisdiction.

In a letter to the minister on July 26, Ominayak states, "As I made very clear to Mr Robb when we met on June 13th,the Lubicon people are concerned about continuing efforts by certain regional office officials and their provincial government cronies to tear Lubicon society apart, to subvert Lubicon land rights and to undermine Lubicon land negotiations."

With tensions high and Lubicon land rights at stake, the Assembly of First Nations passed a resolution directing the AFN national chief and the Alberta regional vice chief "to intervene with" the minister. They called for the department to honor the 1980 agreement "to reimburse the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation for social assistance provided to Lubicon members wherever they reside pending settlement of Lubicon land rights." They also called for the minister to remove Alberta INAC officials who the AFN said "are working in concert with the Alberta government to subvert Lubicon land rights by trying to use the 1991 social services funding agreement to tear Lubicon society apart."

Powerful unions, including the Canadian Labour Congress, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and others have issued strong statements supporting the Lubicon people.

On Aug. 24, Indian Affairs' director of communications for Alberta, Glenn Luff, said about the call for removal of INAC officials, "I don't think that is likely to happen."

Luff said the 1991 federal-provincial agreement "applies to all treaty areas." He said five exceptions were made to the agreement and Little Buffalo was one of them.

"The main reason for those exceptions being made was because we had members of First Nations living on lands that were either under negotiation to become reserves, or they were soon to become reserve." Luff said that although the federal government had been paying for Little Buffalo, Peerless and Trout lakes "that is not our practice." He said according to the 1991 agreement Peerless and Trout Lake should not be funded.

Reminded that Little Buffalo is not a reserve, Luff said "that is besides the point; the fact is whther it is a reserve or not, as part of the 1991 agreement . . . there was an exception made there that social assistance funding would go to Little Buffalo." Even so, Luff said the department had decided that week to continue making the exception for now in the interests of advancing land title negotiations.

Kevin Thomas, a researcher with the Toronto group Friends of the Lubicon, said Aug. 30 that Lubicon supporters would keep the pressure on Minister Nault in his home riding of Kenora-Rainy River, where there is a large Aboriginal population, until the land question is resolved. They kicked off an information campaign Aug. 26 that included a full-page ad in the local paper.

They're not letting the province off the hook either: Thomas said ever since the federal government agreed to 95.4 square miles for a reserve following social protest action by the Lubicon in 1988, "the province has been trying to undermine it."