It's another great invention coming out of the first nations of Saskatchewan. It was driven with the premise that....
English River is an example. In the summer months, they'd go up to their hunting and trapping grounds in northern Saskatchewan. When the treaty commissioner came by, there was only one-quarter of the community in Patuanak along the Des Nedhe, the great river. They signed a treaty based on that number.
In Saskatchewan, the first nations pushed, saying that the numbers allocated during treaty signing were lower than what was actually reported. The Office of the Treaty Commissioner pushed for a number of first nations in Saskatchewan to get a bucket of money and a set of acreage. They could go out and resolve that past injustice. That's when communities like ours went out and secured their hunting, trapping and fishing right lands with Crown land. They then met with private landowners to secure some of the economic development lands.
I was listening to a story two elders were telling me last week. They had to come out here and convince former prime minister Chrétien to sign off on their economic development lands. They had a quota. They could only spend so much per acre. They said that was a bit paternalistic. He said, “Yes, let's get rid of that”, and they got their land.