Metis legislation nearing final approval

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Metis self-government and self-sufficiency is a step closer to reality with the second reading of legislative bills aimed at giving Alberta's eight northern Metis homelands greater autonomy and a 17-year funding package.

Once becoming law the four bills will provide a special form of Metis local government, a finance package worth $310 million and protection of Metis lands in the Canadian Constitution. It will also see a special quasi-judicial body known as the Metis appeals' tribunal established.

The settlements were established 50 years ago under the Metis Population Betterment Act to aid Alberta' Metis who were in the grip of the Great Depression. Now outdated and impractical, calls arose for the acts renewal. Settlement Metis have been concerned about losing their lands ever since four provincial Metis settlements were wiped out on the whims of the provincial government.

"The bills introduced today move us one step closer to our goals of constitutionally protecting our land and achieving self-reliance," said Randy Hardy, president of the Alberta Federation of Metis Settlements.

The eight Metis settlements, taking up some 1.3 million acres of land, include Peavine, East Prairie, Gift Lake, Kikino, Casian, Fishing Lake, Elizabeth and Paddle Prairie. The latter, at over 400,000 acres, is the largest piece of Native-owned land in Canada. The eight Metis homelands have about 5,000 members.

The new acts were made possible by negotiations which took place between the Metis settlers and the Alberta government throughout the 1980s. A special settlements-wide referendum took place in 1989 in which the Alberta Settlements Accord was accepted by about 78 percent of voter.

The settlers, as part of the deal, will settle a long-standing lawsuit against the province for sub-surface resource revenues thought to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. It was a point of contention while the deal was being considered by settlement members, especially at Paddle Prairie, the most resource rich.

Recognizing the deal is less than perfect, Hardy said "the overall package is good for the settlements and - most of all - the land is protected." He hopes similar aboriginal deals can be negotiated for other Canadian Native people.