A University of Alberta professor says the Natural Resources Transfer Act strengthens and protects Indigenous treaty land rights.
Under the 1930 NRTA, the federal government transferred control over Crown lands and natural resources to the Prairie provinces.
Frank Tough, who teaches in the Faculty of Native Studies at the U of A, was one of the keynote speakers at the Western Treaty Nations Summit in Prince Albert Wednesday morning.
He says the act makes it clear the provinces are responsible for making sure lands promised to First Nations under the treaties are honoured.
“The lands that were owed from the treaties that hadn’t been allocated to particular reserves, that had not been surveyed, the federal government ensured that was an obligation for the province to provide those lands,” he says.
Tough also says the NRTA protects First Nations treaty hunting rights.
“Indians of the province have a livelihood right and livelihood right in turn has to do with how well the land’s managed in general. They (provinces) can’t, for example, allocate certain hunting rights to white sportsmen at the expense of Aboriginal harvesters.”
The treaty nations summit wraps up on Thursday.
It is hosted by the Prince Albert Grand Council.