The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations believes the Saskatchewan government’s recent pause on Crown Land sales is a “constitutional event.”
Last week, the government announced the pause of a crown land auction set for later this month.
The pause came after Premier Scott Moe was asked about the sale at an unrelated event. Moe said the government may have gotten ahead of themselves on the sale and in the days following the auction was paused.
The government said the auction automatically kicked in after the lease on the land ended, but an indefinite pause on all crown land sales has since been extended. The province had initially put a two-year pause on crown land sales in the summer of 2023.
In a statement from the FSIN Tuesday morning, the organization says this proves the assertion from First Nations that the province cannot lawfully dispose of Crown lands – many of which are used for traditional purposes.
“We have always stated and affirmed that our treaties trump provincial law,” FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron was quoted as saying in the statement. “Our Nations are not waiting to find their footing, they already possess the administrative, legal, and constitutional capacity to respond decisively.”
The FSIN says duty to consult policy is not a “courtesy”, but is a binding legal principal and is calling on the province to “live up to its constitutional obligations.”