The Issue of Registration The issue of registration of the Innu under the Indian Act has a complex history. The Innu applied for registration in 1977. At that time, the Province opposed the move, and although the reasons are unclear, the Government did not accede to the Innu request.26 In the late 1980s, the Government appears to have been prepared to register the Innu, but at that point the Innu did not wish to be placed under the Indian Act. In the early 1990s, the Innu continued to oppose the prospect of registration, and sought instead to obtain "equivalency" to "status" without actually engaging in the registration process. In 1997, the Government withdrew its offer of registration and reserve status prior to signing the relocation agreement with the Davis Inlet Innu.27 The 1993 Report had recommended that the Innu not be required to register as status Indians under the Indian Act. The Report suggested that the Government should act directly without imposing a process of registration on the Innu. When negotiations commenced after the 1993 Report, the Government initially appeared to be in agreement with the approach recommended in the Report. The Order in Council contemplated the provision of services without registration. And this was the position taken by the Deputy Minister of DIAND, who wrote to the Innu on 12 December 1997, stating: "[W]ith self-government currently under negotiation, it appears that registration and reserve creation is an unnecessary step to take and then undo under a self-government regime."28 In short, the approach appeared to be that the Innu would receive all of the benefits to which status Indians on reserve were entitled, that land claims and self-government would be negotiated, and that in this way the Government would have fulfilled its constitutional responsibilities. This position was reiterated on 24 November 1999 in an Agreement in Principle signed by the President of the Innu Nation, the band leaders of Sheshatshiu and of the Mushuau Innu, the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, Brian Tobin, and the federal Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Robert Nault. Under the Agreement in Principle, the Province was to facilitate the transfer of land for the settlement of Innu land claims, the Government and the Province were to work together to transfer control over education programs to the Innu, there was to be an agreement on Aboriginal policing, legal arrangements for Innu governance were to be put in place, and there was a commitment to the "expeditious conclusion" of an Innu land claims and self-government agreement.29 In short, the November 1999 Agreement in Principle contemplated the assumption by the Government of its full constitutional responsibilities towards the Innu and the conclusion of land claims and self-government agreements. Back to top However, it did not work out that way. The Government, it turned out, was not prepared to grant the Innu all of the benefits to which status Indians on reserve were entitled. The sticking point appears to have been tax exempt status, which the Government was not prepared to provide to the Innu. In 1997 Indian Affairs and Northern Development Minister Ron Irwin claimed that there had never been a commitment that equivalency for the Innu would include "taxation."30 The Innu took the view that since they were entitled to be registered and have reserves created, then "equivalency" meant that they were entitled to tax exemption. Tax exemption had implications not only for the Innu as individuals but also for the expenditures made by the Innu Nation and the bands at Sheshatshiu and Davis Inlet. From the Innu point of view, unless they received tax exempt status equivalent to that received by those who were registered under the Indian Act, they were not receiving the benefits to which they would be entitled if the Government was properly fulfilling its constitutional responsibilities towards them. There were other complicating factors arising out of the fact that the Innu were not living on reserves. The "bands" at Sheshatshiu and Davis Inlet are simply incorporated entities under provincial laws. This means that they have been limited in their ability to enact by-laws and to regulate matters within their communities, including access to alcohol. Some felt that these matters could be worked out, and that it might be possible to create new mechanisms and legal vehicles outside the Indian Act, to establish equivalencies to those matters that followed automatically from registration under the Indian Act, avoiding the process of registration. On the government side, it was felt that seeking to provide the Innu with equivalency in this latter way was too cumbersome. In the end, Innu leaders concluded that registration under the Indian Act and the creation of reserves were the only ways they could achieve true "equivalency." In March 1999, a referendum was held in Sheshatshiu and Davis Inlet on the following question: In the interim until Innu rights and Innu government agreements are in place, I am in favour of the leadership of the Innu Nation and of the band councils taking whatever actions they determine as necessary to ensure equivalency of programs and services including taxation exemption. I also agree that as a last resort this mandate includes registration under the Indian Act and taking a reserve.
In Sheshatshiu, there was a 49% voter turnout, with 78.5% in favour of registration. In Davis Inlet, there was an 88% voter turnout, with 88.2% in favour of registration. Back to top Notwithstanding these results, there appear to be several differing perspectives on the registration referendum. Some of the Innu concluded that if registration was the only way to get full recognition, programs, services and taxation provisions similar to those of other Aboriginal people, the community should positively support registration under the Indian Act. Others were less accepting of the registration process, and felt that the Innu had decided to "hold their noses" and accept the politically offensive route of registration under the Act because their good faith efforts to negotiate alternate avenues and procedures had not met with success. Some continued to resist registration, if only in principle, arguing that moving from being under the jurisdiction of Newfoundland and Labrador to being under the Indian Act was "no help" and describing it as a "step sideways." Nor from the federal side was registration regarded as necessarily a desirable process. Some officials, particularly within DIAND, felt that registration was being driven by a few Innu who wanted the personal benefit of tax exemption, a benefit that officials considered to be of marginal value to many low-income Innu. Others felt that applying the provisions of the Indian Act to a further group of Aboriginal people was regressive, and might set a precedent that would be seized upon by other groups wishing to be registered as well. They considered that it was contrary to the general policy of DIAND to create new relationships with Aboriginal people that did not move away from the "outdated and paternalistic" strictures of the Indian Act. As a result of the delays and their concern that the issue of registration was going nowhere, in September 2000 the Innu threatened to march on Ottawa and set up their tents on Parliament Hill. On 8 September 2000, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Robert Nault offered to discuss the issue of Innu registration and reserve creation with his Cabinet colleagues before the end of the year. Federal officials say that the Cabinet approval process became complicated by public revelations of the gas sniffing among Innu children in November 2000. The crisis provoked intervention by the Prime Minister and Health Canada, and caused Cabinet to ask for a comprehensive background report prior to issuing approval for the registration and reserve creation. Back to top Thus it was not until June 2001, some two years after the Innu voted in favour of registration, that Cabinet formally approved the registration of the Innu under the Indian Act.31 In the end, the reluctance within the bureaucracy of DIAND to proceed with registration was overridden by the political decision of Cabinet. In spite of this political support, the registration process continued to move slowly, and resulted in some degree of tension and acrimony between the Innu and the Government. Federal officials see much of this as inevitable. Registration, in their view, is inherently time consuming and complex. Criteria have to be developed as to who will be defined as "Innu," and the entire community needs to be enumerated. Individuals in Sheshatshiu and Davis Inlet can choose whether to register or not, and community meetings must be called to explain the meaning and implications of registration. The creation of a reserve is equally complicated. The reserve lands need to be surveyed, title searched and environmentally assessed. Private interests must be bought out. The land has to be turned into provincial Crown land, and subsequently transferred to the Government. Where non-Innu families have built homes adjacent to Innu families, the lines of the new reserve will occasionally have to be drawn in a checkerboard fashion to recognize this. Although this is not an issue for the new Mushuau Innu community of Natuashish, it is a difficulty that faces Sheshatshiu, where non-Innu have been living in the community for many years. The slowness of the registration process contributed to a good deal of suspicion from the Innu who believe that delays have in part been deliberate, to allow the Government to put pressure on the Innu in respect of other issues under negotiation. In fact, the Innu moved quickly on enumeration and saw delay essentially coming from the federal side. A substantial amount of time was spent determining the budget for the registration process. Back to top By late 2001, the budget for the registration process was approved.32 Lists of those eligible for registration were then prepared, and consultations in the communities were completed in 2002. Although some estimated that the process of registration and reserve creation would be completed by June 2002, this has yet to occur. The matter has been referred to the federal Cabinet, and it is unclear when final approval might be anticipated. The saga leading to registration is an unfortunate one that does not reflect well on the Government. The Innu were offered registration. The offer was subsequently withdrawn and then re-offered. The Innu were told they were getting equivalency without registration, but then told equivalency only applied to programs and services and not to taxation. They were then told they could get taxation exemption if they became registered. When a parallel was drawn with Conne River, the Innu were told that they were different from the Aboriginal inhabitants of Conne River, although an internal government memorandum provided to the Innu under an Access to Information Act request appears to indicate that the only real difference between the Innu and the Mik’maqs of Conne River was that whereas the Mik’maqs had sued the Government, the Innu had not. Thus, for the Innu, registration will be the culmination of a long and tortuous process. In the words of Peter Penashue, "it should have been just so simple. Eight years later [since the 1993 Report] they are starting to do what they should have done in 1949."33 The Actual Funding Situation The Government takes the view that, with the exception of tax benefits, it is providing programs and services to the Innu as if they were status Indians under the Indian Act. The provincial government continues to provide education and social services, and the Government provides some additional funds "topping up" the provincial funding so that it is comparable to what is provided to Indians on reserves across the country. The Government also argues that since 1997, it has paid to the Innu of Labrador a "very significant capital catch-up," amounting to several million dollars annually. The Innu concede that they are now getting direct funding from the Government, but many essential services remain with the Province, which continues to fund and control education, policing and social services, a situation that will not change after registration. | CONCLUSION 3 The Government has not implemented that part of the second recommendation in the 1993 Report under which the Innu were to be provided with access to all federal funding, programs and services that were available to status, on-reserve Indian people in Canada. However, it has implemented part of this recommendation and it has, albeit belatedly, set in motion a process — registration and the creation of reserves — that will ensure the Innu have access to all federal funding, programs and services that are available to status, on-reserve Indian people in Canada. |
Back to top The final aspect of the second recommendation in the 1993 Report was that, in providing these services, the Government preserve "the unique aspects of existing arrangements such as the outposts program." That program covers the air travel expenses of the Innu families who go out to their hunting camps to live on the land for two to three months each fall and spring. The camps are very small, mostly confined to family groups and located many miles from each other. Many Innu see the program as central to the maintenance of traditional Innu culture and as one of the venues in which the elders are able to contribute to the passing down of knowledge and expertise. They repeatedly stress the importance of the outposts program to the retention of the Innu language — Innu-aimun — and to the strength of the community’s education, health and culture. The 1994 Statement of Political Commitments indicated that the Government was prepared to "provide its share of funding for outpost activities" to assist the Innu to spend time in the country, and was to enter into negotiations "to discuss access to emergency and regular social support programs for Innu families when they are in the country."34 However, the commitment did not appear to continue in any consistent fashion. The notion of providing the Innu with programs and services equivalent to those available to status Indians on reserve has come to be a double-edged sword as far as the outposts program is concerned. In 1997, the Deputy Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development wrote to Chief Paul Rich saying that the outposts program could not be funded under the direct funding arrangement because it was not a program available to status Indians on reserve.35Ad hoc funding has been made available and in 1997, approximately $300,000 in extra funding was provided to Sheshatshiu in the operation and maintenance budget to fund an outposts program. In 2001, the Innu were advised that such funds were no longer available. In the absence of direct government funding, the band councils of Davis Inlet and Sheshatshiu have attempted to cover outpost costs out of their own funds, and this has contributed to cost overruns. In 2001 no outposts program was conducted by Davis Inlet. Discussions have continued on an ad hoc basis to provide for outposts funding, but the Government does not appear to have any long-term commitment to the continuation of the outposts program. | CONCLUSION 4 The Government has not implemented that aspect of the second recommendation in the 1993 Report that called on the Government of Canada to preserve "the unique aspects of existing arrangements such as the outposts program." |
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