Some Nipissing First Nation members not happy with plans for Robinson Huron Treaty settlement funds

Nipissing First Nation has yet to receive its portion of the $10 billion Robinson Huron Treaty Settlement but there's already disagreement among some community members on how it will be divided.

The community about 100 kilometres east of Sudbury, Ont., held a vote earlier this month that proposed two options: that either 25 or 35 per cent of the settlement go to a legacy fund with the rest going directly to band members.

Jan Couchie, who lived on-reserve most of her life but moved after the COVID-19 pandemic, said she didn't like either option.

"We have written letters and pretty much begged our chief and council to allow a third option on that vote … allowing each member to decide for themselves what they wanted to contribute," she said.

Now that she's off-reserve, she worries a legacy fund would serve only the 980 on-reserve members. She said she believes leadership needs to be more transparent about how they are managing these funds.

The Robinson-Huron Treaty signed in 1850 promised annual payments to First Nations on the north shore of Lake Huron in exchange for the right to use their lands. A clause in the treaty tied the value of the annual payments to resource revenues. 

Northeastern Ontario mining, lumber and fishing industries generated billions of dollars in profits over the past two centuries, but annual payments to First Nations were capped at $4 per person in 1874 and haven't increased since. In 2018, Ontario's Superior Court of Justice ruled the province had an obligation to increase the annuities.

A settlement was reached in 2023 for $10 billion, with Ontario and Canada each paying half.

Nipissing Chief Scott McLeod said the decision in the 2018 case was based on the legal argument that there was a lump sum of money that was to be paid to the First Nations.

For the first few years following the treaty signing, the annuity was paid out to the band. McLeod said the chiefs saw to the needs of the community as a collective; any money leftover was given to individuals.

"It was a global amount of money that was given to the nations and they decided how to best use those funds," said McLeod.

"For over 160 years the community has been cheated out of the money because it was supposed to be community-based amounts and the government switched it to individual payments and then they never raised it so it was stuck at the $4," he said.

McLeod said because of misunderstanding of the treaty some recipients of the $4 annuity from the government believe they are entitled to 100 per cent of the settlement now.

After the legal fees and loans are paid out of the $10 billion settlement, McLeod said the 21 treaty nations will share 39 per cent equally, regardless of membership. Another 25 per cent will be divided up based on band list population and another 25 per cent will be divided based on the current list of people who receive a treaty annuity.

Based on some estimates Nipissing First Nation could receive "anywhere between $560 million upwards to close to $600 million," McLeod said, but they won't know until those numbers are crunched.

One of the delays is getting the list of annuity recipients from the federal government which he said could take two to three years.

The 39 per cent base amount is expected to be disbursed sooner, McLeod said, and would be around $175 million per First Nation.

As for the legacy fund, "We had to come up with a comfortable amount of money that we could move forward into the future providing continued benefits to our members both present and future," said McLeod.

He said membership will determine how the legacy fund will be spent. 

'Future of our grandchildren'

Aylan Couchie attended several of the community consultation sessions and said she is excited about the idea of a legacy fund. 

"No if, ands or buts about it because we're talking about the future of our community and the future of our grandchildren," she said.

Aylan Couchie is a mother of three, grandmother of four and a full-time student who divides her time between the reserve and Toronto, where she is pursuing her PhD.

She sits on the language and culture committee for Nipissing First Nation and said she sees the benefits a legacy fund could provide like stipends for elders or program development, especially for language.  

"Language revitalization is huge for our community," she said.

"I mean it's important for all communities, but our community has a very unique dialect and we only have a handful of speakers left right now."