In March 2009, both the Federal and Provincial governments announced a Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) goal within Ontario and set a unilateral deadline of July 1, 2010 for implementation. Grand Council Treaty 3, joined all Ontario First Nations in criticizing both the process and policy behind the announcement. Fundamentally, these governments intend to infringe inherent jurisdiction and the treaty relationship through the HST initiative.

Section 87 of the federal Indian Act has long-stood for a treaty promise of protecting the inherent jurisdiction of First Nations and their traditional governments. Grand Council Treaty 3 is the historic, traditional government that has pre-existed Canada and any European contact within the area now known as Northwestern Ontario and eastern Manitoba. The 55,000 square miles of Anishinaabe territory, also known as Treaty 3 territory, has always been governed by the Anishinaabe Nation of the Grand Council that surrounded Rainy Lake, Lake of the Woods and the English River watersheds.

The expectation for any Federal-Provincial initiative that could impact the ability of the Grand Council Treaty 3 to govern within Treaty 3, is that a government to government process would be jointly determined and implemented by the parties within the treaty framework. Unilateralism has been largely criticized by Canadian Courts and been replaced with regimes of Consultation policies and accommodation frameworks.

The ability of Treaty 3 citizens to utilize their Status Cards to receive point-of-sale exemptions on provincial taxes is more than symbolic of sovereignty, it is a practical and real act of sovereignty by citizens of the Grand Council. Representatives of the Grand Council Treaty 3  in 1873 said that they would only sign Treaty 3 as a Nation, and that the Queen’s representatives were only to negotiate with the Nation and not individual communities. This important jurisdiction to negotiate treaties and to govern the territory has always been held by the Grand Council Treaty 3, since time immemorial.

Billions of dollars in resources have been extracted from the 55,000 square miles of Treaty 3 territory which was instrumental for investment into Canadian Confederation, and was done in a manner that ignored the promises made in Treaty 3, and this policy had been described as “economic apartheid.” The citizens of Treaty 3 could not hire lawyers to fight for their rights, were not party to the St. Catherine’s Milling case which narrowly interpreted Treaty 3, and could not even purchase licenses to extract resources. This apartheid-like policy made it impossible for the Anishinaabe to share in the wealth of the territory in the twentieth-century.

A Political Statement by the Grand Council Treaty 3 on the HST was delivered to Minister Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance for the Government of Canada today in Kenora, Ontario.

QUOTES:

“The PST exemption is not merely symbolic, but in two important ways, it tells the rest of Canada that we are both sovereign and distinct peoples in this region. The Point of Sale exemption stands in the way of asking for more revenues from a group of people largely marginalized through the treaty history of Ontario.” explains Deputy Grand Chief Simon Fobister of Grassy Narrows First Nation. “Ontario has unjustly enriched itself over more than 120 years and now wants to administrate the HST, illegally, to collect taxes from the citizens of Treaty 3 to support activities that clearly discourage treaty implementation and adversely impact our rights and interests.”

For more information contact:

Janine Bird, janine.bird@treaty3.ca

807 548 4214 ext. 2241

Website: http://www.treaty3.ca