“A NEW FISCAL RELATIONSHIP:” A SETTLER BUREAUCRAT’S PERSPECTIVE ON FISCAL RELATIONS BETWEEN CANADA AND TREATY 6 FIRST NATIONS, THEIR HISTORY, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

Abstract

This thesis addresses the research question: What might truly “nation-to-nation” fiscal relationships look like between Canada and Alberta Treaty 6 First Nations if Treaty 6 were taken seriously? The thesis goes about exploring this question by reviewing the history of Treaty 6, based on the assumption that understanding Treaty 6 in its historical context is critical to understanding how it should be applied today. It is established that Treaty 6 created nation-to-nation relationships that were based on the desire for mutually-beneficial relations in a shared space, and that treaty included fiscal obligations for Canada. The history of Treaty 6 fiscal relations is briefly examined from 1876 to 2015, and the conclusion drawn that fiscal relationships did not live up to the expectations of Treaty 6 over this period. With Chapter 3, the perspective switches to the contemporary, looking at the rhetoric and action taken by the 2015 Trudeau government, and concludes that despite rhetorical ambition, substantive changes are limited and those that have been implemented appear to be continuing the pattern of Canada failing to take Treaty 6 seriously. The final half of the thesis offers recommendations for how Treaty 6 fiscal relationships could be changed such that they would be consistent with treaty-based, nation-to-nation fiscal relationships. Some of these recommendations are relatively pragmatic and would come at little political, fiscal, or constitutional cost to Canada, while others are more dramatic, and would involve a fundamental reshaping of Canada as we know it.