The provincial government has been selling off Crown lands relentlessly for more than a decade and it needs to stop or there won’t be anything left. That, from NDP Critic for First Nations and Metis Relations, Betty Nippi-Albright, who spoke alongside a delegation of traditional land users led by former FSIN Chief Roland Crowe.

Crowe was instrumental in signing the 1992 Treaty Land Entitlement agreement between the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, and the federal and provincial governments. He, along with the delegation and the Official Opposition, is calling on the province put a stop to the sale of lands encumbered by Treaty First Nations because it drives up the cost of land and that affects all farmers, ranchers, hunters, fishers and gatherers, and future generations. Crowe explains the land is encumbered by the 1930 Transfer Agreement and by the legislation of the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration. He suggests it is being bought by foreign investors who want to extract the natural resources, but his message to these investors is that the province doesn’t have the right to sell it.

Nippi-Albright says Crown lands belong to all of us and they are especially important for First Nations and Metis hunters, gatherers and traditional land users who are trying to exercise their Treaty and Inherent rights.