Whitecap Dakota just looking for a fair deal

Next week, Whitecap Dakota First Nation chief and council will be meeting with youth to talk about self-government.

It’s just one of a number of information sessions that will lead to a motion to approve the agreement-in-principle that has been negotiated between Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada and the band over the last four years, said Murray Long, director of self-government for Whitecap Dakota.

A community meeting on the agreement is anticipated in April. Once community support is received and a band council resolution is passed, the next stage of negotiations will get underway.
“All Canada needs is a resolution from council, but our position from the outset has been that we need to have the support of our community,” said Long.

“It’s important to keep all our community members informed,” said Chief Darcy Bear. “We want to target the youth, but also even the high school kids, because some of those high school kids are going to be the ones voting on this in 2018, so it’s important for them to know what self-government is and what it means to our community,”.

The final agreement with Canada, and the Whitecap Dakota constitution, must be ratified by membership, and although that may still be a couple of years away, discussion is happening now.

Whitecap Dakota signed off on the framework agreement in January 2012.

The most critical aspect of negotiating over the next couple of years will be determining the fiscal relationship between Canada and the First Nation, said Bear. He will be reminding the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s promise of sufficient and predictable funding, especially in light of Trudeau’s claim to a new nation-to-nation relationship.

Bear points out that Canada needs to recognize that First Nations are far behind when it comes to infrastructure and economic development on their lands.

The move toward self-government is not the first step Whitecap Dakota has taken to get out from under the Indian Act.

In 2004, Whitecap Dakota signed on to the First Nations Land Management Act, eliminating about 25 per cent of the Indian Act. The result was a drop in the unemployment rate from 70 per cent to five per cent and the creation of 680 jobs in the community.

“It’s made a big difference,” said Bear. “The Indian Act was never a piece of legislation that was created for us as First Nations to be a part of the economy. It was meant to segregate us, keep us out of sight of mind, while everybody else around us had the opportunity to build their infrastructure, their economy, their jobs, their opportunities. We just want to take our rightful place in the economy. We want jobs, like everybody else wants jobs. We want opportunities, like everybody else wants opportunities.”

Self-government will provide Whitecap Dakota with legislative rights to enact their own laws, as well as the ability to enforce their laws.
The areas in which Whitecap will have jurisdiction are still on the negotiating table, as are the areas in which, if there is a conflict between federal, provincial or Whitecap law, which jurisdiction will take precedence, says Long.

Already Whitecap Dakota has a bilateral table with the province of Saskatchewan, said Bear. The province has agreed to a “First Nations docket” in the court system allowing the provincial court to enforce Whitecap laws once the self-government agreement is finalized.

 “At the end of the day, we’ve always said that the deal has to be fair to Whitecap, that (we) shouldn’t be penalized for being successful and moving forward. So it’s got to be a package the community can vote on and we want to make sure the fiscal relationship between Whitecap and Canada is a fair one,” said Bear.