Northern Public Affairs December 2019 Volume 6, Special Issue 2 Special Issue on Modern Treaty Implementation Research Canada $9.99 www.northernpublicaffairs.ca “This land claims to us as Indian people represents a chance for us to do something for ourselves; to do something with our lives; to do something that we as Indian people can be proud of in the future, and perhaps this land claims settlement could even be something that the Canadian people are proud and perhaps even the Liberal Government.” — Daniel Johnson (Tlen), Chairman of the Council for Yukon Indians, recorded in minutes of a meeting with Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau on August 17, 1977. A copy of this document is stored in the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in government fonds in the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in archives. Northern Public Affairs December 2019 Message from the Land Claims Agreements Coalition Co-Chairs 6 Message from the Tłı̨chǫ Government Chief Executive Council 7 The first of its kind: The Modern Treaties Implementation Research Project 8 Frances Abele, Stephanie Irlbacher-Fox, & Joshua Gladstone Lianne Marie Leda Charlie: Hot pink bull moose, modern treaties, and decolonization 11 Jessica Simpson No time for a modern treaty 15 Dakota Erutse FEATURES Gowhaedo Gonàowo (Ancestral ways): Mapping modern treaty implementation 18 John B. Zoe with Jessica Simpson & Hayden King Shaping the Northern political landscape: Comprehensive land claims agreements 23 Graham White Power and politics: Financing the spirit and intent of modern treaties 27 Frances Abele, Fahad Ahmad, & Caroline Grady A new relationship? Reflections on the collaborative federal fiscal policy development process 34 Rosanna Nicol, Adam Perry, Bobby Clark, & Martin Papillon Implementing a modern treaty in British Columbia: Lived experiences from Huu-ay-aht First Nations—Maa-nulth Treaty signatories 41 Huu-ay-aht First Nations, Vanessa Sloan Morgan, Marc Calabretta, Becki Nookemis, Jon Aarssen, & Healther Castleden Towards a modern treaties implementation review commission Kirk Cameron & Alastair Campbell 47 Judicial interventions in modern treaty implementation: Dispute resolution and living treaties 52 Janna Promislow & Alain Verrier Government-to-government relationships support modern treaty implementation Angela Wesley, Lakshmi Lochan, Odette Wilson, & Stephanie Gustin 57 Bill C-88 elimination of the MVRMA “superboard”: Small step or start of big leaps in modern treaty implementation? 61 David V. Wright Measuring well-being in the context of modern treaties: Challenges and opportunities 66 Karen Bouchard, Adam Perry, Bobby Clark,& Thierry Rodon Enhancing fisheries co-management in the Eastern Arctic Jamie Snook, Jason Akearok, & Tommy Palliser, with Ashlee Cunsolo, Carie Hoover, & Megan Bailey 70 Engaging the next generation of treaty negotiators and implementers Sherry Campbell 75 This special issue of Northern Public Affairs was produced in partnership with: This issue of Northern Public Affairs is distributed with the support of: Northern Public Affairs Volume 6, Special Issue 2 December 2019 Founding Editors Joshua Gladstone Sheena Kennedy Dalseg Jerald Sabin Managing Editor Joshua Gladstone Guest Editorial Team Stephanie Irlbacher-Fox Frances Abele Jessica Simpson Layout Production Mark Finn Copy Editing Alex Merrill COVER IMAGE: Bull’s Eye Face, courtesy Lianne Marie Leda Charlie. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Letters should be sent with the writer’s name, address, and daytime phone num- ber via email to [email protected], or by mail to Northern Public Affairs 57 Balsam St., Ottawa, ON CANADA K1R 6W8. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, and may be published in any medium. All letters become property of Northern Public Affairs and will not be returned. VOLUME 6, SPECIAL ISSUE 2, December 20, 2019. NORTHERN PUBLIC AFFAIRS (ISSN 2291-9902) is published three times a year by Northern Public Affairs. NORTHERN PUBLIC AFFAIRS IS A TRADEMARK OF NORTHERN PUBLIC AFFAIRS. COPYRIGHT © 2019 NORTHERN PUBLIC AFFAIRS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN CANADA. OPENING REMARKS Message from the Land Claims Agreements Coalition Co-Chairs s Co-Chairs of the Land Claims Agreements hosted by the Tłı̨chǫ Government. Coalition, we are pleased to welcome this This partnership is the first of its kind between specialA edition of Northern Public Affairs, focused the LCAC and a university, and between modern on the implementation of modern treaties. treaty practitioners and academics across Canada. The Land Claims Agreements Coalition The project came about as a result of extensive (LCAC) was established to ensure that our modern discussion over a number of years between LCAC treaties (comprehensive land claims agreements) members. Those discussions highlighted the need and associated self-government agreements are for research on modern treaty implementation, respected, honoured, and fully implemented. and the obstacles to that implementation. For Indigenous signatories, modern It is our hope that the research undertaken treaties offer opportunities for partnership in through this partnership will help generate resource development, political and economic evidence required to inform policy and decision- development, and social and cultural well-being. making within our governments and organizations They are the basis for a new, positive relationship as well as within the federal, provincial, and between Indigenous Peoples and the wider territorial governments. The project is also Canadian society. intended to educate the next generation of This particular edition of Northern Public Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars on the Affairs focuses on issues primarily from the importance and nuances of modern treaties and Modern Treaties Implementation Research their implementation, in ways that respect and Project, a partnership between the Land Claim foster Indigenous knowledge and various research Agreements Coalition and Carleton University, methods. with a national office based in Yellowknife and Eva Clayton Aluki Kotierk President, Nisga’a Nation President, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. LCAC CO-CHAIR LCAC CO-CHAIR Photo Credit: Land Claims AgreementsPhoto Credit: Coalition Land Claims AgreementsPhoto Credit: Coalition 6 Northern Public Affairs, November 2019 OPENING REMARKS Message from the Tłı̨chǫ Government Chief Executive Council he Tłı̨chǫ Government is host to the Modern • A share of mineral royalties from the Mackenzie Treaties Implementation Research Project Valley. nationalT coordinating office, and has actively par- ticipated in its development and research through The Tłı̨chǫ Government has been a member co-leading the Lands theme. of the Land Claims Agreements Coalition since In 2005 the Tłı̨chǫ Nation ratified the Tłı̨chǫ 2005. Through our own experience implement- Agreement, a modern treaty with the Government ing a modern treaty, and through working with of Canada. It is the first combined comprehensive modern treaty holders throughout Canada, we land claim and self-government agreement in the see the importance of research as a way to iden- Northwest Territories. The agreement provides tify and understand best practices and impacts of and defines certain rights relating to lands, resourc- modern treaty implementation. As the papers in es and self-government. Some of the highlights of this special issue show, the Modern Treaties Im- the agreement include: plementation Research Project is starting to result in greater interest in researching modern treaty • Creation of the Tłı̨chǫ Government; implementation, and is providing opportunities • Ownership of 39,000 km2 of land located between for Indigenous cultural knowledge holders, schol- Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake including ars, and students to think deeply about modern surface and subsurface rights; treaty implementation, and to do research work- • The ability to define its membership known as ing in partnership with modern treaty holders. We Tłı̨chǫ citizens; look forward to continuing to support this project, • Jurisdiction over lands and resources in the Tłı̨chǫ and achieving results that will lead to a better un- traditional territory; derstanding of what is needed to fully implement • The establishment of the Wek’éezhíi Land and modern treaties. Y Water Board and the Wek’éezhíi Renewable Resources Board; Tłı̨chǫ GovernmentTłı̨chǫ Photo Credit: Photo Credit: Members of the Tłı̨chǫ Chief Executive Council (from left): Chief Charlie Foot Ball, Chief Clifford Daniels, Grand Chief George Mackenzie, Chief Alfonz Nitisiza, Chief David Wedawin. Northern Public Affairs, November 2019 7 LETTER FROM THE EDITORS The first of its kind: The Modern Treaties Implementation Research Project Frances Abele, Stephanie Irlbacher-Fox, & Joshua Gladstone early half a century ago, Canada’s political provincial and territorial governments, as they have leadership agreed to negotiate comprehensive had to “make room” for Indigenous governments landN claim agreements – modern treaties – with and take treaty commitments fully into account. nations and peoples who had not previously The result is that modern treaties have not concluded treaties, and who wished to do so. The become the success stories they hold the potential federal change of heart was initially an exceedingly to be. The earliest modern treaties, such as the cautious response to a number of historical forces. James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, and One of these was the accumulating jurisprudence the Inuvialuit Final Agreement, did not include on Indigenous rights, beginning with the 1973