First Nation receives $127M to settle decades-long land claim

A Saskatchewan First Nation near North Battleford will receive about $127 million to settle a land claim that dates back to 1905.

The Mosquito, Grizzly Bear's Head, Lean Man First Nation lost over 5,800 hectares of reserve land in the Battlefords area in 1905.

In a claim filed with the Specific Claims Tribunal in 2014, the band alleged the federal government illegally took and sold the land.

The government denied the claim in 2014.

But in a joint statement regarding validity and compensation filed with the tribunal on Dec. 21, 2017, the federal government agreed the loss of land was "invalid."

The compensation hearing looked at the agricultural production in the lost land to determine the loss of its use and benefits since 1905.

The tribunal determined the current market value of the land at $15.5 million, effective Sept. 21, 2017. The tribunal assessed the value of its loss through Dec. 31, 2019, at $111,433,972.

The combined amount is $126,933,972.

"Although the agreement did not describe the events and actions that breached Crown fiduciary duty, the evidence introduced in the compensation phase of the proceeding reveals that the Crown took a surrender vote in contravention of the statutory requirement that permitted only members of the Grizzly Bear's Head and Lean Man Bands to vote, and later accepted and acted on the surrender," the tribunal wrote in its decision.

"This was, from the outset, a breach of the duty of ordinary prudence. This breach occurred within a Treaty relationship, with respect to a Treaty reserve, and the breach led directly to the permanent alienation of Treaty reserve land from the Claimant."

The First Nation began the land claim back in the 1990s and spent decades fighting the government for compensation.