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Home /Claimsmap /Saskatchewan /Inquiries /Completed Inquiries – Reports Released Completed Inquiries – Reports Released01/03/1996 Lac La Ronge [Treaty Land Entitlement] - March 1996March 1996 The Lac La Ronge Indian Band claimed that the Government of Canada had not fulfilled its obligations under Treaty 6 (signed in 1876) to set aside sufficient reserve land for the use and benefit of the band. The dispute between Canada and the Band centred on the interpretation of Treaty 6, which provides a formula to calculate the amount of land owed to a band but does not expressly state when a band's population should be counted to determine the size of its reserve land entitlement. Nor does the treaty offer any guidance on the rights and obligations of the parties when a band does not receive its full entitlement to land on the first survey of the reserve. 1) The purpose and intention of the Treaty is that each band is entitled to 128 acres of land for each member of the band, and every treaty Indian is entitled to be counted in an entitlement calculation as a member of a band. 2) For a band without reserves, the quantum of land entitlement crystallizes no later than the date of the first survey and shall be based on the actual band membership, including band members who were absent at the time of the survey. 3) If a band received its full land entitlement at date of first survey, Canada's treaty obligations are satisfied, subject to the principle that "late additions" are entitled to be counted for entitlement purposes. 4) If a band did not receive its full entitlement at date of first survey, or if a new or additional shortfall arose as a result of "late additions" joining the band after first survey, the band has an outstanding treaty entitlement to the shortfall acreage, and Canada must provide at least this amount of land in order to discharge its obligation to provide reserve lands under treaty. 5) Canada's failure to provide the full land entitlement at date of first survey, or subsequently to provide sufficient additional land to fulfil any new treaty land entitlement arising by virtue of "late additions" joining the band after first survey, constitutes a breach of the treaty and a corresponding breach of fiduciary obligation. A breach of treaty or fiduciary obligation can give rise to an equitable obligation to provide restitution to the band. 6) Natural increases or decreases in the band's population after the date of first survey have no bearing on the amount of land owed to the band under the terms of treaty. The Lac La Ronge Band received a total of 107,147 acres over a 75 - year period from 1897 to 1973. Applying the principles to the facts in this case, the Commission found that Canada had satisfied the Band's treaty land entitlement of 61,952 acres by 1968, and 45,195 additional acres had been set aside as reserve for the Band in excess of Canada's obligations under Treaty 6. However, the fact remains that Canada did not completely satisfy its treaty obligation to the Band until 1968, some 70 years after the date of first survey. In view of the fact that the Commission had not received submissions from either Canada or the Lac La Ronge Band as to the legal or equitable consequences that should flow from this 70 - year time lapse, the Commission declined to consider this issue. Since the claims advanced by the Band regarding the Crown's fiduciary obligations are inextricably connected to the Candle Lake and School Lands claims, the Commission declined to consider whether Canada owed a specific and distinct fiduciary obligation to the Band. Nor did it consider the nature and extent of any such obligation in the absence of evidence and argument with respect to those related claims. Response: No substantive response from government required |