Sask. First Nation, Ottawa settle on $90.9M claim for withheld agricultural benefits

The federal government is compensating English River First Nation for agricultural benefits promised in the early 1900s that were never provided.

In a Thursday news release, Ottawa said it has agreed to pay the English River First Nation $90,860,500 for "failing to uphold its promise to provide assistance for agriculture or stock raising or other work, as well as Canada's failure to provide flags, medals, suits of clothing, and ammunition and twine."

"The significant socio-economic gaps between First Nations and non-First Nations People in Canada are the direct result of inequitable and counter-productive colonial policies and Canada's failure to honour and implement treaty promises," the government release said.

English River councillor Jenny Wolverine told CBC the process was difficult, but a long time coming.

"Our ancestors who signed treaty, I wish they were here to see this day. This is what they were hoping for our people, not money-wise but to build capacity in our community," she said.

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Some in the community plan to use the compensation to pay for school or start businesses, Wolverine said.

"There's a lot of resources we lack on the reservation and the money is going to help a lot of families for a better future."

Wolverine said the payout likely should have been more because, to her knowledge, there isn't a funding model to account for the inflationary differences between now and the treaty signing in 1906. Instead, she said, the price was calculated on a per capita basis that doesn't calculate those who died since then or those who aren't born yet.

The settlement has not been paid out yet. When it is, Wolverine said, each of the approximately 1,400 adult band members will receive about $32,000. The rest will be split into a trust to be given to the next several generations — about 400 people in the community are minors, she estimated — as they reach adulthood. Some of the settlement is going to the estates of those who have died.

Although the original agreement was about agriculture, Wolverine said the terrain and environment isn't suitable for farming now.

English River band members voted to accept the settlement on Oct. 13, 2023, and Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree executed the agreement on the government's behalf on Feb. 2, 2024.

"Canada failed to uphold the cows and ploughs promise in Treaty 10 and acted without considering the economic and historical implications. We will continue to rebuild trust in our relationship with the English River First Nation in order to address past wrongs," Anandasangaree said in a statement.

English River First Nation is composed of both the Patuanak and La Plonge reserves, and located about 425 kilometres north of Saskatoon.

The First Nation originally filed its claim in March 2018 and was accepted for negotiation in August 2021.

"Our government is changing, and it's not going to happen overnight, but we see the little changes and we're just happy that we have a voice at the table now," Wolverine said.

In Saskatchewan, 116 claims are underway and 135 have been concluded — 120 through negotiations, according to federal documents.

So far, from April 2023 to March 2024, the federal government has settled a dozen claims valued at a total of $830.6 million.