Lubicon rejects feds offer of $1.5 million

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The federal government has offered the Lubicon Indians cash compensation for loss of treaty benefits but says Alberta may want to claim half of the oil and gas revenues on the land under claim by the band.

In a letter to the band, federal negotiator Brian Malone says Alberta may be constitutionally entitled to "50 per cent of all monies gained from the sale, lease, or other disposition of minerals on Indian reserves transferred after 1930."

The federal government has offered the sum of $500,000 in compensation for loss of treaty benefits, $300,000 toward planning a reserve and another $350,000 for a health centre.

"Those are the kinds of things that we feel we can get ahead and negotiate . . . so that if a transfer of land is made possible then we can get on with the job of building a reserve," says Don McGregor, director of communications with Indian Affairs.

The band has rejected the governments offer calling it worse than one made two years ago, which would have given the band full mineral rights.

Lubicon Chief Bernard Ominayak says Malone is missing the most important issue in all of this, "the membership question."

The number of band members has been the central issue of contention in the land claim which has gone unresolved for 48 years. The number of band members will determine the amount of land the band will receive. The Lubicons claim 457 members but both governments say there are fewer and therefore the land claim should be smaller.

The federal negotiator sent a separate letter to the province on the amount of land required for the reserve. The Lubicon chief says he asked for a copy of the letter but his request was denied.

The letter to the band also says the government is willing to negotiate a capital construction program with the band for infrastructure needs such as water, sewage and roads.

The letter goes on to say that Canada is willing to work with the band and the province to set up a wildlife management area outside the reserve as well as a program to compensate trappers for losses.

Ominayak says the government is trying to "deceive the public to believe that they are trying to settle with us and that we're (the ones) being unreasonable."

The band is willing to negotiate with the federal government as long as E. Davie Fulton is re-involved in the talks, a request that both governments have refused.