Thank you very much for allowing us to be in front of you to say a few words.
My first nation has about 700 people. We're in the central part of the Yukon. We signed off our final agreement in 1997 and have been working to implement it ever since then.
The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, said that he wanted to promote reconciliation and he wanted to make it a reality. I'll refer back to the letter to Minister Bennett. We believe this committee can play a key role in the promotion of reconciliation. Indian Affairs, or INAC, has been focused on Indian Act bands. The department and the committee need to place a higher priority on modern treaties and self-government.
I'll try to be quick, as I know we're running a bit behind time.
Yukon first nations have signed off on the umbrella final agreement, and 11 of us have final agreements out of the 26 that are in Canada right now, so we do play a major role. We are major contributors to the economic situation in the Yukon. We are partners with the Yukon government on resource management and co-management of lands. Our final agreements have led to a new way of governing. I've always said this to people. Our final agreements have changed the way in which all parties—territorial, federal, and Yukon—govern forever. That change is there. We're not an Indian Act band and we're not a municipality. We are an order of government with powers equal to the provinces and territories.
Yukon first nations, as I said, sacrificed an enormous amount to reach these agreements. It was 30 years of negotiations and millions of dollars to negotiate them, which we paid back. In 93% of our traditional territory, over the last 20 years Canada has done nothing to change its internal policies and practices to make them consistent with the treaties, and more often than not, when policy does change, it takes us backwards instead of forward. The proposed fiscal approach is an example of this. Its implementation will drag us back into the Indian Act world.
The fiscal approach contradicts and violates our final agreements. In several fundamental ways Canada cannot implement its fiscal approach and meet the modern treaty agreement commitments under self-governing Yukon first nations. For example, it does not provide us with the ability to negotiate or reconcile. The modern treaties commit the parties to negotiate an agreement every five years in the Yukon. This new fiscal approach dictates that Canada exclusively provides the transfer solutions. That's not right. If Yukon first nations follow that approach and Canada follows that approach, we all would be breaching the agreements that we've signed together. The land claims agreements are based on objectives that the fiscal transfer will enable the self-governing Yukon first nations to provide programs and services comparable to those prevailing in the Yukon, but the fiscal approach is based on Indian Act band funding.
The land claims agreement recognizes that self-governing Yukon first nations have thousands of square miles of settlement land, co-manage our traditional territories, and are responsible for citizens throughout the territory. It is important to note that the fiscal approach is based on Indian band on-reserve responsibilities. It's a big difference there. The fiscal approach is unacceptable. It's a step backwards for self-governing Yukon first nations. Its implementation will violate the commitments of the Yukon first nations final agreements rather than promote reconciliation. It's not what the Prime Minister said, and it's not what the INAC minister said either, according to their own words.
Thank you.