All the First Nations in the Algoma and Manitoulin districts will join with their peers as part of The Anishinabek Nation to vote this fall to expand self-governance to include the ability to craft their own laws around elections, citizenship, language and culture.
The Anishinabek Nation Governance Agreement will recognize the nation and its members as governments and remove them from parts of the Indian Act that cover band lists, elections for chief and council and meeting procedures.
Ratification votes are set to take place between August and November and will set the stage for an intergovernmental forum with the prime minister and cabinet, the first of its kind for any self-government agreement in the country.
Work on a governance agreement began in 1995 with the signing of an Anishinabek Nation Grand Council resolution which authorized negotiations.
A framework was agreed to in 1998 and an agreement-in-principle was signed in 2007.
Even with a federal election scheduled for this fall, former Anishinabek Nation Grand Council chief Patrick Madahbee says any government would be hard-pressed to “scuttle” something that different parties have been involved in for years.
“I look at it as an opportunity our First Nations should not let pass,” he says. “We’ve been talking about taking back our jurisdiction and responsibility in a lot of areas, and governance is key because we need to be in a position where we make our own path, our own laws, and get out of the Indian Act which, as I said, has been controlling us from cradle to grave.”
As part of the agreement, First Nations would be allowed to determine citizenship rights and responsibilities, qualifications for office and finance management laws, including not being forced to disclose salaries, honorariums and travel expenses of chief and council, as well as terms of office for chief and council.