Open Letter to Minister Carolyn Bennett
Canada’s Inaction on Late Specific Claims Assessments

May 2, 2019

Dear Minister Bennett,

We write today to present a follow-up report prepared by the BC Specific Claims Working Group (BCSCWG) on your government’s inaction on late specific claims assessments. In November 2018, the BCSCWG brought to your attention your department’s failure to meet its legislated timelines to assess specific claims and communicate effectively with Indigenous Nations. We urged you to take immediate, transparent action on the report’s recommendations and you have not done so. We reiterate our call to address the backlog of claims by implementing the recommendations put forward by the BCSCWG in both reports.

PRESS STATEMENT

 UBCIC Condemns Minister Bennett’s False Statements Regarding the “Joint Development” of a New Specific Claims Process   

(Coast Salish Territory – Vancouver, BC – December 4, 2018)

The Union of BC Indian Chiefs unequivocally denounces the inaccurate and misleading statements made by Minister Carolyn Bennett to the national media and to the chiefs gathered at a meeting of the Assembly of First Nations. Minister Bennett has falsely stated that the specific claims process is being “overhauled” in favour of a new regime that has been jointly developed by First Nations.

Open Letter to Minister Carolyn Bennett

Canada’s Failure to Meet the Legislated Three-Year Deadline to Respond to Specific Claims

The Honourable Carolyn Bennett
Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs

November 26, 2018

Dear Minister Bennett,

The Union of BC Indian Chiefs writes today to present the enclosed report prepared by the BC Specific Claims Working Group on your government’s repeated failure to meet its legislated timelines to assess specific claims and notify Indigenous Nations, and to call on you to take immediate action on the report’s recommendations.

Dear Ministers Bennett and Wilson-Raybould,

We write today to call on you to demonstrate your government’s public commitments to transparency and the renewal of Canada’s relationship with Indigenous peoples by disclosing how Canada calculates its contingent liabilities regarding Indigenous Nations’ land claims – and by affirming your government’s intention to fulfill its outstanding lawful obligations to Indigenous Nations by fairly resolving these claims.

The Honourable Carolyn Bennett
Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6
[email protected]

July 6, 2018

Dear Minister Bennett,

On June 28, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister Joe Wild attended the UBCIC’s Chiefs Council meeting in Richmond, BC (xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm, Musqueam Territory). Mr. Wild assured the UBCIC Executive, member Chiefs, and delegates that you are committed to working towards an independent specific claims process. He also confirmed that you stressed the importance of developing an independent process to Prime Minster Trudeau at a recent “take stock” meeting, and that you strongly recommended submitting a memorandum to Cabinet in the fall seeking authority to move forward on developing this process with Indigenous Nations.

January 5, 2017

Dear Minister Bennett,

We are a long-standing national group of specific claims research directors working on behalf of Indigenous Nations and committed to the just, fair, and timely resolution of specific claims in Canada. Here we present a response to the November 2016 report by the Office of the Auditor General (OAG), First Nations Specific Claims—Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC). This response, called Taking Action, Building Trust, translates recommendations from the audit process into concrete, tangible actions that Canada can undertake within the next six months.

March 31, 2016

Dear Minister Bennett:

On February 13, 2016, you met with the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (“UBCIC”) Executive in Vancouver to initiate a working relationship and review our organization’s priorities with a view to future discussions. At that meeting you made an explicit commitment to restore funding for specific claims research and development to Claims Research Units (“CRUs”) and First Nations across Canada. In 2014, drastic funding cuts ranging from 30-60% were meted out to these organizations as part of the Harper government’s Deficit Reduction Action Plan. We stressed to you the urgency of restoring funding, and the timeliness required as INAC’s responses to annual research funding proposals submitted by CRUs and First Nations in January 2016 were expected at the end of March.

Dear Ministers Bennett and Wilson-Raybould,

We write to urge you to immediately withdraw Canada’s application for judicial review of the Specific Claims Tribunal’s (“Tribunal”) decision in the Akisq'nuk First Nation’s specific claim and to honour the Tribunal’s decision as final and binding.

Dear Minister Bennett: 

We write to follow up on our November 4, 2015 letter and briefing note regarding the fair, just and timely resolution of specific claims. In that letter we recommend taking concrete measures to demonstrate the Government of Canada’s commitment to reconciliation through resolving specific claims and to carry out this work in partnership with First Nations. The most pressing of these recommendations is the immediate restoration of specific claims research funding to claims research units (CRUs) and First Nations.

November 18, 2015

Dear Minister Bennett:

We write to respectfully urge you to address an important matter which is impeding the ability of First Nations to access information from your ministry for the purposes of filing specific claims. Specific claims deal with Canada’s failure to fulfil historical lawful obligations to honour its treaty promises to First Nations and to protect reserve lands and assets from illegal alienation and mismanagement.