Teslin Tlingit Council says it's 'drastically underfunded,' pushes for better deal with Canada

The Teslin Tlingit Council has filed a petition with the Yukon Supreme Court, saying its financial transfer agreement with the federal government is inadequate, and needs to be renegotiated to honour the First Nation's final agreement.

"Our hope is that Canada will see that we mean business. We didn't sacrifice all these years going into negotiating these agreements for them not to be upheld," said Duane Gastant Aucoin, an executive councillor with the Teslin Tlingit.

He says the First Nation is underfunded.

"Our citizens are the ones who are suffering because of this," he says.

The Teslin Tlingit Council (TTC) negotiated its current financial transfer agreement with Canada in 2010. It expired in 2015, but was extended.

That agreement has never provided adequate funding, according to the First Nation. Gastant Aucoin says the TTC agreed to extend the agreement in 2015 with the understanding that a new financial transfer agreement would be negotiated by 2018.

But he says the federal government now wants to extend it again, into 2019.

CBC contacted Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada for comment, and was told to expect a reply Wednesday.

'Something always suffers'

Every year, when the First Nation does its budgeting, it runs into the dilemma of trying to meet the needs of its citizens, say Gastant Aucoin.

"We try to focus on the little money that we do get to different areas, but that means that something always suffers."

He says there are core principles of the TTC's final agreement that should guide how the financial transfers are negotiated. According to a statement from the First Nation, Canada is failing to uphold those principles.

One of those is "comparability," meaning the First Nation should be funded to be able to offer levels of service comparable to those offered elsewhere in Yukon, says Gastant Aucoin.

"We're drastically underfunded compared to how the government of the Yukon is funded," he said.

"The lives of Teslin Tlingit citizens have improved since the First Nation signed a final agreement ... but we still have a lot further to go."

Canada is focusing on its national fiscal policy with self-governing First Nations, says Gastant Aucoin, instead of their obligations under the final agreement to negotiate financial transfer agreements (FTAs).

"We're just continually trying to remind them — that no matter what they do with their financial policy, they have an obligation under our agreements to negotiate with us our FTA," he said.

So far, he says, Canada has been unwilling to talk with the TTC about the core principles of its final agreement. The hope with the petition is that the Yukon Supreme Court will uphold those principles.

"There's only so much that we can take ... we felt that this is the only action that Canada left us with," he said.

"We hear the prime minister talking about how there's no relationship that's more important to him than that with Canada's First Nations ... but his actions tell a different story."