Ontario claims it does not need to pay Indigenous peoples billions

Ontario claimed that it does not need to pay billions of dollars owed to First Nations over broken treaty obligations and that it has already spent the sum on resource extraction and infrastructure for colonization Canada's federal government and province in the last week arguing that neither is responsible for compensating Indigenous nations for more than 150 years of lost revenues.

Five years ago, superior court justice Patricia Hennessey ruled that the Crown broke its promise made in two treaties of 1850, that it would increase payments to Indigenous peoples as more natural resources were extracted from their lands.

Since 1850, the Crown has made payments under the Robinson Treaties, but it stopped increasing the amount in 1874, leaving the figure at C $4 per person per year.

A group of First Nations have been involved in settlement talks that have been suspended. Another group went to the courts for an answer.

The parties met for the third and final stage of the years-long court case over the past week as justice Hennessy decides how compensation should be calculated.

The province has argued that it is the federal government, not Ontario, that owes any compensation money.

Even if the province did have a financial obligation, lawyer Tamara Barclay told the court that the costs associated with mining and forestry were so large that the Crown extraction in the region resulted in loss of between C $7 bn and C $12 bn.

In addition to the expenses associated with colonization roads and railways, Barclay cited mining research, reforestation, insect control, forest fire management, surveys, land agents as examples of the money spent by the province, adding that at most the government would owe the Anishinaabe people C $34 m.

Remote First Nations communities are in a terrible state, sometimes lacking access to clean drinking water because of the immense revenues generated by industry.

The First Nations appearing in court rejected the government lawyers arguments, suggesting that roads and railways were part of a broader nation-building effort and shouldn't count against revenues owed to them.

Harley Schachter, a lawyer representing five First Nations, compared Ontario's argument to that of a fox left in charge of the chickens.

The fox turns to the judge, with egg all over his face, and in the most reassuring manner says: Look, judge, firstly, about the eggs, there are none, so I don't know why the chickens are complaining, he told the court.

Schachter believes that the First Nations are owed an 84% share of net Crown revenues from five sectors, including mining and forestry. On Friday, Joseph Stiglitz, a two-time Nobel laureate, is due to give evidence in support of the First Nations arguments. The communities could be owed more than C $100 billion under that model of compensation.

The final amounts claimed as payable are large, Schachter told the court earlier this week. They are large because the federal and provincial governments did not honour the treaty obligation. They are large but they are not untoward.