Land Quality on Reserves in Ontario: Description and Implications for Land Tenure by Elsie Richmond A Thesis presented to The University of Guelph In partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Food, Agricultural, and Resource Economics Guelph, Ontario, Canada © Elsie Richmond, September 2020 ABSTRACT LAND QUALITY ON RESERVES IN ONTARIO: DESCRIPTION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR LAND TENURE Elsie Richmond Advisor: University of Guelph, 2020 B. James Deaton My research aims to identify whether land quality influences the emergence of the adoption of different patterns of land tenure on First Nations Reserves. My first research question identifies whether there is a difference in the percentage of prime agricultural land on-reserves versus off-reserves in Ontario. My second question tests the theoretically motivated hypothesis that land quality influences the adoption of Certificates of Possession (CP). I identify whether land quality impacts the adoption of the CP system. I find that the off-reserve surveyed area in Ontario has a higher percentage of prime agricultural land than the surveyed reserves in Ontario. I also present a case study of Six Nations of the Grand River to evaluate research question 2. I find that there is a relationship between a parcel’s percentage of prime agricultural land and the adoption of a CP. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to begin by reminding us that The University of Guelph is situated on Indigenous land. I acknowledge that the university is located on the traditional territories of the Anishinaabek Peoples, specifically on the traditional territory of Missisaugas of the Credit First Nation. The history of this land did not begin at the point of colonization. Before settlers arrived and since their arrival, this land has been cared for by Indigenous Peoples. This thesis would not have come to be without the help of many wonderful people. I thank my Advisor, Brady Deaton for the guidance throughout this process. Thank you to my committee member, Tongzhe Li, I appreciate all your help. Thank you Barry Hill for your guidance and advice. Thank you to Liam Kelly and Bethany Lipka for your support throughout this process. I couldn’t have done it without the weekly meetings and input from you both. Thank you to my fellow students as well. I’m not lying when I say that I miss the late nights studying microeconomics with you all in the pit! I am very proud of the hard work you all have done the past two years. Thank you to Laura Stortz, my first friend in FARE. I have had a wonderful journey at Guelph and I’m so glad I was able to go through it as FARE2. To my family, thank you for the love and support. To Nikko, thank you for all the dinners, late night iv pickups from campus and always been there for me. I am very lucky to have the support. I am grateful for the financial support from the McCain Foundation, which has allowed me to study an area of great importance for Canada and First Nations alike. Finally, thank you to the faculty and staff in the department. Thank you for working to create a supportive learning environment, where I always knew a door would be open if I had questions. v TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................. ii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................ iii Table of Contents .................................................................................................................... v List of Tables ......................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures ....................................................................................................................... viii 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 2. Land Tenure on Reserves and Certificates of Possession .................................................. 2 2.1 Land Management on Reserves ............................................................................................ 4 2.2 The History of Private Property Rights on Reserves .............................................................. 6 2.2.1 Obtaining a New Certificate of Possession ........................................................................................... 8 2.2.2 Obtaining a Pre-existing Certificate of Possession ................................................................................ 9 2.3 Costs and Benefits Associated with Adoption of a Certificate of Possession ....................... 10 2.3.1 Benefits of Adopting a Certificate of Possession ................................................................................. 11 2.3.2 Costs of Adopting a Certificate of Possession ..................................................................................... 12 2.4 Constraints to Using Certificates of Possession under the Indian Act .................................. 14 2.5 Adoption of Certificates of Possession ................................................................................ 15 3. Conceptual Framework .................................................................................................. 16 3.1 The Relationship Between Land Quality and Land Value .................................................... 16 3.2 Demsetz’s Theory of the Evolution of Property Rights ........................................................ 17 3.3 Conceptual Model .............................................................................................................. 19 4. Method for Developing Data Set .................................................................................... 20 4.1 Defining Prime Agricultural Land ........................................................................................ 20 4.2 Data Sources ...................................................................................................................... 22 4.2.1 Methods of Developing Data Sets ....................................................................................................... 23 4.2.2 Manipulating Spatial Data in ArcGIS ................................................................................................... 29 4.3 Data Description ................................................................................................................ 30 5. Empirical Approach and Key Hypotheses ........................................................................ 36 5.1 Research Question 1 .......................................................................................................... 36 5.1.1 Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test ..................................................................................................................... 37 5.1.2 Research Question 2 ........................................................................................................................... 38 vi 6. Results ........................................................................................................................... 43 7. Discussion ...................................................................................................................... 50 7.1 Understanding the Distribution of Prime Agricultural Land On-Reserve and Off-Reserve .... 50 7.2 Implications of Results ....................................................................................................... 61 7.3 Recommendations for Future Research .............................................................................. 62 8. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 63 References ............................................................................................................................. 65 Appendices ............................................................................................................................ 70 8.1 Appendix A ........................................................................................................................ 70 8.2 Appendix B ......................................................................................................................... 73 8.3 Appendix C ......................................................................................................................... 78 8.4 Appendix D ........................................................................................................................ 80 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Indigenous Land Tenure Systems in Canada ................................................. 3 Table 2.2 Forms of Land Tenure Under the Indian Act .................................................... 4 Table 4.1 Descriptions of Canada Land Inventory Classes ........................................... 22 Table 4.3 Total Area Covered in Data Sets ................................................................... 30 Table 4.4 Summary Statistics for Data Set 2 ................................................................. 33 Table 4.5 Summary Statistics for Data Set 3 ................................................................. 34 Table 6.1 Percentage of each Canada Land Inventory Class ........................................ 44 Table 6.2 Research Question 2