Wednesday, September 27, 2023
No Result
View All Result
  • Media
Support Us
Macdonald-Laurier Institute
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs
  • Projects
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Justice Report Card
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Provincial COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
      • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Past Projects
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy
    • Papers
    • Commentary
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Video
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs
  • Projects
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Justice Report Card
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Provincial COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
      • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Past Projects
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy
    • Papers
    • Commentary
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Video
No Result
View All Result
Macdonald-Laurier Institute

Bellegarde election win another step toward resource revenue sharing: Coates in the Post

December 15, 2014
in Columns, Domestic Policy Program, Economic policy, In the Media, Indigenous Affairs Program, Latest News
Reading Time: 4 mins read
A A

Writing in the National Post, Macdonald-Laurier Institute Senior Fellow Ken Coates says the election of Perry Bellegarde as the Chief of the Assembly of First Nations will make expectations for resource revenue sharing the norm across Canada.

Ken Coats

Resource revenue sharing involves the transfer of wealth federal, provincial, territorial governments derive from natural resource projects to First Nations. This is in addition to funds they receive directly from resource companies.

Coates also spoke to the Regina Leader-Post for a story on the issue.

Coates is the author of a forthcoming MLI paper examining resource revenue sharing with Aboriginal peoples.

By Ken Coates, Dec. 15, 2014

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde, elected on Wednesday, has made his priority clear: “To the people across the great land, I say to you, that the values of fairness and tolerance which Canada exports to the world, is a lie when it comes to our people.” The national chief then declared that First Nations expected a far greater share of the country’s prosperity: “To Canada, we say, for far too long we have been dispossessed of our homelands and the wealth of our rightful inheritance.”

To most Canadians, Chief Bellegarde’s statement seems provocative, if not radical. Conditioned to believing that First Nations simply stand before the government of Canada, cap in hand, demanding additional funding, the general public likely looks on the latest call to action as yet another money grab. It is nothing of the sort.

The national chief, in calling for aboriginal people to receive a “rightful” share of the country’s prosperity, is asserting the First Nations’ expectation that resource-revenue sharing will become the norm across Canada. Only a few decades ago, such an argument would have been rejected out of hand. Governments provided a variety of social welfare, housing and other payments, a process that cost the Department of Indian Affairs a great deal of money but did little to address the underlying socio-economic needs of aboriginal communities.

First Nations wanted something different. They believed, as Bellegarde himself has said many times, that the historical treaties only transferred land “to the depth of the plough,” leaving the question of control of the wealth below the surface unresolved. In non-treaty areas, where First Nations’ claims to the land and resources remained unresolved, it seemed obvious to aboriginal people that they deserved a share in the natural bounty of their territories.

In recent years, federal, provincial and territorial governments reconsidered their earlier stance and instituted several forms of resource-revenue sharing. The concept is simple: Governments receive financial benefits, in the forms of royalties, from companies developing natural resources. The governments, in turn, allocate a portion of the resource revenues to one or more First Nations. In this way, First Nations become beneficiaries of economic development on their traditional territories. These funds are on top of financial, employment and business-development agreements negotiated with the resource companies.

Although Bellegarde is undoubtedly thinking of a much higher return on mining and energy projects than that included in the current arrangements, the reality is that resource-revenue sharing exists in much of Canada. While the historical or numbered treaties are silent on revenue sharing, modern accords signed in British Columbia, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Quebec and Labrador include wealth-sharing arrangements. In British Columbia (where most of the province is not yet covered by a modern treaty), the provincial government has agreed to project-by-project revenue sharing. The Northwest Territories, having negotiated devolution of resource control from the federal government to the territory, agreed to share a substantial portion of their resource revenues with aboriginal governments. Clearly, resource-

revenue sharing already distributes millions of dollars to First Nations and Inuit communities across the country.

There are gaps. Saskatchewan and Alberta — both resource-rich provinces — do not yet have revenue sharing arrangements. They argue that aboriginal people benefit from the general social and other spending in the province. Manitoba has indicated a willingness to consider a new approach. Ontario, reeling from the collapse of the Ring of Fire mining project, is working closely with northern First Nations on different arrangements. The Maritime provinces, which have neither historic nor modern treaties and no comprehensive resource-revenue sharing with First Nations, face demands for proper agreements.

Canada has started down the road that Bellegarde supports. The steps, large compared to where the country was 40 years ago, are small compared to where First Nations expect the country to be. First Nations have legal reasons to expect more. The 2014 Tsilhqot’in decision by the Supreme Court greatly enhanced the strength of aboriginal territorial rights in non-treaty areas. Similarly, as governments exercise their constitutional “duty to consult and accommodate” requirements, they face increased pressure to satisfy aboriginal demands. These powers, combined with broader First Nations legal and constitutional rights and untested indigenous claims related to the historic and numbered treaties, give aboriginal people considerable authority.

The current resource-revenue agreements emerged as a result of unrelenting aboriginal pressure for an appropriate financial return from Canadian resource development. Resource-revenue sharing, where implemented, has brought neither explosive aboriginal wealth nor chaos on the development frontier. While some communities have struggled to capitalize on financial opportunities, most have used the revenue constructively.

The rapid rise of joint ventures, indigenous equity investments, the expansion of aboriginal development corporations and other measures, indicate the potential for positive results on resource extraction on First Nations’ territories. National Chief Bellegarde is right to point to prosperity sharing as the foundation for a new and lasting relationship between Aboriginal people and the rest of Canada.

Ken Coates is a senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and author of a forthcoming research paper examining resource revenue sharing with aboriginal peoples.

Share this:
Previous Post

Benjamin Perrin in Inside Policy: Why the Supreme Court is Policy-Maker of the Year

Next Post

Christian Leuprecht in Inside Policy: Canada needs to emphasize public safety after terrorist attacks

Related Posts

Gender diverse prisoners and sex-based patterns of offending
Commentary

Gender diverse prisoners and sex-based patterns of offending

September 26, 2023
Cabinet shuffles are OK but a PMO shakeup is what we need: Philip Cross in the Financial Post
Columns

Is the ‘New Ottawa Consensus’ killing our economy?: Jon Hartley in the Hub

September 25, 2023
Zelenskyy meeting with Trudeau: Aurel Braun on CTV News
Video

Zelenskyy meeting with Trudeau: Aurel Braun on CTV News

September 25, 2023
Next Post
New Inside Policy: Special issue on knocking down internal trade barriers

Christian Leuprecht in Inside Policy: Canada needs to emphasize public safety after terrorist attacks

Newsletter Signup

Follow us on

Macdonald-Laurier Institute

323 Chapel Street, Suite #300
Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 7Z2 Canada

613.482.8327

info@macdonaldlaurier.ca
MLI directory

Support Us

Support the Macdonald-Laurier Institute to help ensure that Canada is one of the best governed countries in the world. Click below to learn more or become a sponsor.

Support Us

  • Inside Policy Magazine
  • Annual Reports
  • Jobs
  • Privacy Policy

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs
  • Projects
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Justice Report Card
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Provincial COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
      • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Past Projects
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy
    • Papers
    • Commentary
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Video

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

IDEAS CHANGE THE WORLD!Have the latest Canadian thought leadership delivered straight to your inbox.
First Name
Last Name
Email address

No thanks, I’m not interested.