Land purchase first step in honoring treaties

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The Witchekan Lake First Nation has cleared the final hurdle in a long process that will see land added to the reserve.

An Oct. 5 federal order-in-council made the purchase of two quarter sections, 128 hectares, of agricultural land possible in the first transfer of rural lands to a reserve under the province's Treaty Land Entitlement Agreement. The agreement - unique to Saskatchewan - enables bands to purchase land toward the fulfillment of treaty agreements signed between 1874 and 1906.

Witchekan Lake is one of 25 bands in Saskatchewan that have yet to acquire all the land promised them under the historic treaties. Under the TLE, $450 million over 12 years will be provided to the bands from the federal government to buy a total of 1.67 million acres of land to transfer to reserve status. First Nations, under the TLE, can target private, federal and provincial land to be purchased. The first TLE settlement was completed in July, and involved new reserve land for the Star Blanket First Nation at Fort Qu'Appelle.

In this case, Witchekan Lake targeted private land in the Rural Municipality of Spiritwood. The band was responsible for negotiations with all interested parties to ensure nothing stood in the way of the reclassification of the land from private to federal reserves.

The TLE specifies 75 per cent of interested parties must be in favor of the sale.

The Rural Municipality of Spiritwood was one such stakeholder. By removing the land from the municipality, Spiritwood would lose municipal and school tax money and had to be compensated.

Negotiations with the municipality went smoothly, said Ron Fineday TLE co-ordinator for Witchekan. He believed the entire process to be painless. The band also had to negotiate with other stakeholders like utilities boards, and all went well, Fineday said.

The only downside to the process was the time it took to get the order-in-council. Negotiations started in October 1993 and were completed the following May. It took the wheels of government another five months to complete the transfer.

While this first transaction was successful, the band has had trouble with the purchase of provincial pasture land. Third-party interests, farmers who leased the land from the province, are blocking the sale.

Frustrating though it may be, the TLE agreement is clear that all sales are undertaken on a "willing seller-willing buyer" basis with all existing interest in the land discharged, said Lorne Koback, director of Treaty Land Entitlements and specific claims in Regina. This was the threshold that all parties agreed to and this framework has to be achieved.