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

  • Author / Creator
    Sommers, Luke Javed
  • 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.

  • Subjects / Keywords
  • Graduation date
    Fall 2019
  • Type of Item
    Thesis
  • Degree
    Master of Arts
  • DOI
    https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-q42f-kf47
  • License
    Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission.