Manitoba TLE passes into law

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It was a long wait but the Manitoba Treaty Land Entitlement Framework Agreement finally received royal assent Oct. 20. The legislation to see land reach reserve status faster was signed May 29, 1997, between the Treaty Land Entitlement (TLE) Committee of Manitoba and the province.

The bill will set aside 1.1 million acres of land for 20 First Nations that have outstanding land claims with the federal government.

"I don't want to sound too negative, we now have the bill, but we have to implement what the bill says," said Brad Regehr, executive director for the TLE committee. "That is going to be another whole other ball of wax."

The new legislation states that land set aside for reserves will be done through ministerial order by the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs rather than through an order-in-council, which is a time-consuming process, explained Regehr.

"We've been quite clear that the purpose of this bill is to make this simpler, quicker and easier. If we are just going to reinvent the wheel and make it the exact same process as before, than we shouldn't have even have done the bill in the first place," said Regehr. "Because then we aren't saving time, we are just jumping through the same hoops that we were trying to get around not having to do."

Although Regehr is pleased the bill finally became law, he is concerned that Indian and Northern Affairs may develop a process without consulting all parties involved.

"Then all of sudden we are going to be stuck with a process that doesn't make sense or doesn't suit the needs of the First Nations under this agreement," said Regehr. "That is what my worry is, and I certainly hope that they will consult us on what kind of process they want to put in place. They certainly have messed other things up . . . . We are going to be putting pressure on them very shortly to set out the stages and the documents required for the process of a ministerial order."

Regehr said he is also concerned the pre-designation process that has already been set up will be altered by the government, which may require additional steps or extra documents.

"They could add all sorts of requirements for documents and steps, like more and more people in bureaucracy that would have to OK the thing and then it would take more time, or to put in possible conditions on a First Nation that the pre-designation process wouldn't make any sense," said Regehr. "That is what I want to avoid, basically we don't want Indian Affairs to walk in now and say 'OK we've got a bill and we are going to determine the process and we're gonna implement it,' without going to the other interested parties and going 'do you guys think this is going to make sense, do you think this is going to work?' Because that attitude of 'we know what is best for you and this is what we are deciding' is kind of the prevailing attitude right now."

Regehr explained that the TLE Committee will soon be putting pressure on INAC to set out the stages and the documents required for the process of a ministerial order.