Teslin Tlingit Council Files Court Petition Against Ottawa Over Financial Transfer Agreements

Tuesday, 19 December 2017 15:03

TTC seeking court advice on how to renegotiate FTA.

The Teslin Tlingit Council (TTC) has filed a petition in Yukon Supreme Court against the federal government, seeking guidance on how to proceed with negotiation on renewing its Financial Transfer Agreement (FTA). The First Nation says the current FTA started in 2010, a five-year deal to expire in April 2015, has been extended twice by Ottawa, with Canada looking to extend for a third straight year.

Yanyedi Executive Council member Duane Aucoin says the current FTA is not adequately funded to the First Nations Final Agreements. “We're underfunded in all areas. That’s the struggle we face every fiscal year when we have to do our budgeting. We're being so underfunded, we have to figure out where our priorities are for the year and where we're going to put our funding. So, something always suffers and our citizens and the ones who suffer because of this underfunding.”

Aucoin says the funding from Ottawa is for Status members, yet they must fund every citizen. “We are obliged to provide services to all our citizens, regardless of their Indian Status. Currently Canada fails to fund us for all of our citizens. They only give us funding for our status Indians. So, what little money we receive, we have to spread out even more among our citizens.”

The First Nation asserts that the federal government is not respecting its core values on funding, rather trying to put TTC into national funding structures, which don’t follow their Agreements. “We have core principals within our final agreements, that must be part of any FTA negotiation. That's what we're seeking from the court, is to uphold those core principals that we agreed to. That Teslin Tlingit Council, Canada and the Yukon that must form any part of our Financial Transfer Agreements.” “We're not focused so much on numbers, we're focused on these core principals. Because Canada is not living up to these core principals that are found within our agreements, Teslin Tlingit Council is unable to fully implement our final agreements.” Stated Aucoin.

The First Nation claims that by continually extending what they call an already insufficient FTA, it compromises the First Nations ability to effectively run its government, affecting the community. “There's only so much the Teslin Tlingit Council can tolerate. Again, it goes down to that our citizens are the ones who are suffering and we have to do something.”

The First Nation informed Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett of its plans at the Intergovernmental Forum in Whitehorse Friday, with Aucoin saying Bennet was disappointed. “The Minister is not happy that it's come to this, but Teslin Tlingit Council, we did put Canada on notice that one of the terms we agreed to in our extension for last year is that we wanted Canada to have an FTA ready for the next fiscal year, and that's obviously not going to happen.”

Aucoin says despite the lack of FTA funding, First Nations Final Agreements are benefiting its people. He points to recent income data from the Yukon Bureau of Stats suggesting Yukon First Nations are ahead of the curve nationally on First Nations income. But he warns that First Nations here, are still behind other Yukoners on income. “It showed that Yukon First Nations earned some of the highest income in Canada, but we're still well below what other Yukoner's make. Which shows the final agreements have benefited us, but not to the extent they're supposed too.”

(Dan Jones Whitehorse Dec. 19, 2017)