This article originally appeared in iPolitics. Below is an excerpt from the article, which can be read in full here.
By Ken Coates, September 7, 2023
In announcing plans to sue the federal government and three provincial governments over resource rights, the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) has ignited what could be one of the most important courtroom battles in Canadian history.
Decades of frustration turned into legal action last week when Chief Bobby Cameron said the FSIN — which represents 74 First Nations in Saskatchewan — will take the feds plus the governments of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta to court over the Natural Resources Transfer Act (NRTA).
If this sounds like an arcane, bureaucratic conflict of marginal concern to most Canadians, it is anything but.
The NRTA was designed to end one of the greatest inequalities in Canadian federalism. The Prairie provinces, (Alberta and Saskatchewan were created in 1905; Manitoba expanded to its current boundaries that same year) were not granted the same control of land and natural resources as Canada’s other provinces. Only in 1930 — after the region became more populated, and its land largely handed to settlers and railway companies — did Ottawa transfer this vital power to the Prairie provinces.
First Nations have disputed that transfer to the provinces ever since, claiming Indigenous interests were ignored. Post-1930 history speaks to the consequences: non-Indigenous peoples and communities became wealthier, particularly in Alberta, while Indigenous communities suffered. Natural resource wealth and opportunity were not distributed equitably.
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