Alta. band settles land claim

After decades of failed negotiations, broken promises, standoffs, arrests and global condemnation, Alberta, Canada, and the Lubicon Lake Band have announced a landmark land settlement and compensation deal.

Premier Rachel Notley said the deal sets aside 246 square kilometres of land in the area of Little Buffalo, in northern Alberta.

The federal government is delivering $95 million in compensation, and Alberta will add $18 million.

There will also be money to pay for roads, housing, utility services and other infrastructure for 682 residents who have long struggled with poverty and substandard housing.

“This is truly a momentous day for the Lubicon Lake Band, for the province of Alberta and for all of Canada — one that has been decades and decades in the making,” Notley said Wednesday at the Federal Building on the Legislature Grounds.

Notley was flanked by Lubicon Lake Chief Billy Joe Laboucan and Carolyn Bennett, the federal minister responsible for Indigenous Relations.

Laboucan said the deal provides renewed hope for the band, but acknowledged it came after his people lived in squalor as billions of dollars from oil, gas, and timber were extracted from their land in recent decades as they worked to resolve the issue.

“I realize some things will never get resolved,” said Laboucan.

“I know there have been a lot of resource extraction in our area ... but it’s no use lamenting the past.”

He said the plan now is to build on the work of their forebears.

“We’re moving forward. We always look seven generations ahead. That’s what we’ve been taught,” he said.

“We’re speaking and preparing for the unborn and hopefully that they will have a better future, better homes, good livelihood, good peace of mind and still be able to look after our land and our resources.”

Bennett said the deal demonstrates the federal government’s dedication to honour commitments to Indigenous peoples.

“The band has been a landless First Nation,” said Bennett. “While the region around them flourished, Lubicon members were without clean running water or proper sewage disposal in their homes that recent studies have deemed 100 per cent condemned and irreparable.

“The agreement we’ve concluded today will change this reality for so many.”

Another group called the Lubicon Lake Nation said it was not part of the latest negotiations and wants to study the details before commenting on the deal.