The Lac La Ronge Indian Band is hosting a series of meetings in membership communities around the province on a proposed land code and Monday night officials were in Prince Albert.
The custom band code seeks to replace the 32 land management sections of the Indian Act the First Nation must currently adhere to.
However, before moving forward, lands management official Terrance Johnson says LLRIB must first seek membership feedback.
“Everybody is in control, it is everybody’s plan,” he says. “It’s based on for the whole community itself, the membership and the band. We have to present it out to them. Anything we do, we let our membership know about it.”
Aside from Saskatoon and Prince Albert, meetings are also being held in Little Red Reserve, Hall Lake, Stanley Mission, Grandmother’s Bay, Sucker River and La Ronge this month.
Under the Indian Act, the First Nation must seek approval from the federal government for any land transaction and Johnson says this can be very time-consuming.
Under a custom management land code, he says the band would have greater control and the process more efficient.
“If we have to go through the Indian Act way before, it took long. We were probably looking at anywhere from the minimum of two years to five years before it was actually signed off. This way it actually streamlines it and makes it quicker.”
LLRIB says the land code will enhance self-governance and not affect current treaty rights, additions to reserves or taxation.
The band also says it will protect the band against arbitrary expropriation of reserve lands.
Johnson says if all goes according to plan, members could vote on a proposed land code in a referendum sometime this fall.