$5 treaty payments won’t even buy Tim Hortons meal today, says Alberta First Nation in billion-dollar lawsuit

A First Nation in southern Alberta is suing the federal government for $1 billion, the latest in a series of lawsuits which argue that annual payments promised in treaties should have been adjusted for inflation.

The Bearspaw First Nation filed the proposed class-action lawsuit in Calgary on Tuesday, inviting other Treaty 7 nations — Chiniki, Siksika, Kainai, Piikani, Tsuut’ina and Goodstoney — to join the fight for the adjustment of the $5 annuity payments members receive from the federal government. 

“We either do it today or we wait another 100 years,” said Bearspaw Chief Darcy Dixon, the lawsuit’s representative plaintiff. 

“We as First Nations kept our end of the deal, you can see across this great country, it’s flourished.”

‘It’s an injustice,’ lawyer says

Bearspaw’s lawyer, Sonny Cochrane, says that while the federal government made billions off the land exchanged for annual payments, community members continue to receive just $5 per year. 

“Back in 1877, $5 was enough for a family to survive the winter,” he said. “Today, $5 can’t even buy you a Tim Hortons coffee and a breakfast sandwich, so it’s an injustice.”

Now, he and the First Nation he represents are hoping two recent cases will set the precedent for their own settlement. 

Last year, after a decade of litigation, a $10-billion out-of-court settlement was reached in the Robinson-Huron treaty case with the Ontario and federal governments.

A Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) ruling in July found the federal government made a “mockery” of its obligations in the Robinson-Superior treaty by failing to increase the annual payments to residents since the late 1800s.

The SCC gave the Crown six months to negotiate a settlement with the Robinson-Superior plaintiffs. 

The settlement and SCC ruling opened the legal doors to Indigenous communities across the country to challenge the interpretation of their treaties. Lawsuits have been filed for Treaties 2, 4, 5, 9 and now 7.

Members ‘consistently abused’

University of Calgary law professor Kathleen Mahoney says the lawsuit was “a long time in coming.”

She says it’s obvious that the First Nation members of the class action “have been consistently abused by the federal government since 1877, and they just ignored the obligations of the Crown that were embedded in the treaty.” 

In 1877, Alberta’s Treaty 7 traded 130,000 square kilometres of land in southern Alberta for a commitment from the Crown “to take those First Nations under its protection.”

The Bearspaw First Nation lawsuit argues the intent behind its treaty was a commitment by the Crown to provide for the communities “as long as that sun shines and yonder river flows … for your children, grandchildren and children unborn.”

“There’s no way that the Treaty 7 chiefs at the time agreed that it would be $5 [to] the end of time,” said Cochrane.  

“The purchasing power of $5 in 1877 to now, it’s an empty shell of a promise, that’s how Canada has treated this.”

‘They promised’

Treaty 7 nations were promised annual payments of $5 per person, $25 for each chief and $2,000 for the communities. 

“The Crown was required to increase the annuities to the level that would maintain purchasing power,” reads the statement of claim.

“The promise made through Treaty 7 was to provide, at minimum, the same level of purchasing power for all future generations.”

With lawsuits launched across the country, it’s unclear what the government’s final bill could look like if the courts continue to side with Indigenous communities. 

Mahoney says it’s a debt the Crown “accumulated negligently.”

“The cost to settle this matter has ballooned to enormous debt on the part of the Crown, but they owe it, it’s as simple as that. They promised.”