Metis may make history next year

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Alberta Metis may become the first Aboriginal people to have their right to self-government and their land base entrenched in the Canadian Constitution.

After the failure of the First Ministers Conference, which many had hoped would entrench Aboriginal self-rule into the constitution, many Native groups began to look for other methods. But for the Federation of Metis Settlements, self-government is more than a dream.

During the last FMC conference, Alberta premier Don Getty reconfirmed his predecessor's pledge to amend the Alberta Act and allow for Aboriginal self-government. When Resolution 18 and the new Metis Betterment Act are introduced into the Alberta legislature this spring, Metis people will be making history, says president Randy Hardy.

Currently Hardy and other members of the federation are making road trips to all eight Metis settlements in order to educate members and allow input and comment on the proposed legislation.

Resolution 18 was tabled in the Alberta legislature June 17 after the federation asked for some time to educate the members. The document proposes the transfer of settlement land titles to the Metis and gives constitutional protection of those lands as well as a new framework for managing and governing those lands.

"If the proposal becomes a reality, the goal of protecting Metis land base on the settlements will be achieved," says Hardy.

The federation has already outlined its vision of self-government in the proposal: "We want to see constitutionally protected Metis lands set aside. Number two, settlement councils responsible for local government and with additional powers to make decisions on membership and land allocation. Number three, a central land holding body with trust fund responsibility to be called Okimawiwin. Okimawiwin will address common concerns of the settlement councils ? such as the establishing of common policies for land use planning and resource developing. And number four, provincial jurisdiction consistent with the protection of the constitution over the lands and institutions."

Okimawiwin says Hardy will be based on the current federation association and will be governed by the eight settlement councils with a board made up of the eight chairmen.

It will have land holding and trust responsibility and would provide a mechanism for dealing with common concerns on the settlement. However, Hardy stresses that Okimawiwin mechanism would hand down binding policies and provide an arbitration mechanism for disputes.

"Right now we are living on paternalism," says Hardy of the current legislation. "And that is not democracy. We want to make decisions for ourselves not have decisions made for us by the Alberta government," he says.

Currently, the old Metis Betterment Act only allows councils to make recommendations to the Alberta government. All proposed bylaws must be approved by the minister who can refuse any bylaw without reasons at any time.

Since settlements were officially formed in the 1930s Hardy points out that close to a million acres of land has been lost to the province. He is determined "we don't lose another acre because our land is being chipped away."

Hardy feels that only with the entrenchment of the land base in the Alberta Act, and thus the constitution, will this erosion stop.

Hardy also points to the fact that the Alberta government and the federation gave been embroiled in a law action over sub-surface resource rights since 1978 and because of the long drawn-out battle, programs and services to the settlements have been affected.

"People don't realize that housing (spending) has dropped by 40 per cent and the allocation of houses is left to local houses . . . often they fight among themselves, which is exactly what the government wants."

In 1979 representatives of the Metis Development Branch simultaneously appeared at all settlement offices in Alberta and seized settlement and government files that were, in their opinion,relevant to the natural resource law case.

This action was followed by a public uproar which led to an investigation by the Alberta Ombudsman who later recommended that a committee be established to review and recommend changes to the Metis Betterment Act.

Then in 1984 the Grant MacEwan committee submitted its report to the minister noting that "one of the main concerns of our committee has been the largely paternal nature of the 1938 Act."

Now, almost ten years after the initial recommendation to the change of the act Hardy hopes to see the new Act read in the legislation in the spring.