Buffalo River First Nation [PLAWR II]

September 1995

The claims of these four First Nations arose due to the loss of their traditional hunting, trapping, and fishing lands when they were excluded from 4,500 square miles of Crown land in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan which had been used to establish the Primrose Lake Air Weapons Range (PLAWR) in 1954. The issue before the Indian Claims Commission was whether Canada owed an outstanding lawful obligation to the claimants arising from the creation of the range.

In 1993 the Commission released a report into similar claims involving the Cold Lake and Canoe Lake First Nations. In those inquiries, the Commission concluded that Canada breached its treaty and fiduciary obligations towards the First Nations because their treaty harvesting activities and commercial trapping economies were devastated when the Bands were precluded from exercising their rights over most of their traditional territories. The claimants in this claim also asserted that the Crown breached its treaty and fiduciary obligations by excluding Band members from exercising their commercial and food harvesting rights in the range.

The Commission concluded that Canada owed a fiduciary duty to the Flying Dust, Buffalo River, and Waterhen First Nations to ensure that Band members were compensated for lost commercial harvesting rights caused by portions of their Fur Conservation Areas were taken up by the range. Under the circumstances, a particular fiduciary duty arose when the Crown undertook to compensate individuals with property rights in trap lines and other commercial interests that were affected by the creation of the range. Since no compensation was paid to Flying Dust, Buffalo River, and Waterhen Lake Band members for the loss of commercial harvesting rights, the Crown breached its fiduciary duties to these First Nations.

With regard to the issue of breach of treaty, the Commission found the Crown did not breach its treaty obligations to the claimant First Nations. Although the traditional area in which the claimants exercise their treaty food-harvesting rights had been reduced after the range was created, it was not to the extent that they were unable to continue to exercise their treaty rights in a reasonable manner (as had been the case with the Cold Lake and Canoe Lake First Nations).

Therefore, the Commission recommended that the claims of the Flying Dust, Buffalo River, and Waterhen First Nations, with respect to lost commercial harvesting rights only, be accepted for negotiation, and that the claim of the Joseph Bighead First Nation was properly rejected by the Minister pursuant to the Specific Claims Policy.

Response: In March 2002, the government rejected the recommendations made in the Commission's September 1995 report concerning the Buffalo River, Flying Dust and Waterhen Lake First Nations. No response from the government was required concerning the Joseph Bighead First Nation.

Click Here to Download Government Response

Click Here for the Report