The settlement of a six-year-old lawsuit by the Saskatchewan government against the federal government will see the province get title to the minerals in just over 84,000 acres of farmland and other land.
The province last week announced a settlement and release agreement with the federal natural resources department, ending the province’s 2003 lawsuit over the ownership of minerals on Soldier Settlement Board lands.
The Soldier Settlement program, which operated after the First World War, was an agricultural loan program for returning soldiers seeking to take up farming or improve their existing operations.
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The Soldier Settlement Board, which ran the program, would often take ownership of minerals as part of its land acquisition work. These minerals were reserved by the federal government from any sale of land to an eligible soldier settler.
At issue in the province’s suit was whether Soldier Settlement Board minerals were transferred to the province under the provisions of the Natural Resources Transfer Agreement (NRTA) of 1930.
Ottawa, the province said, has maintained since the 1930s that the transfer provisions of the NRTA did not apply to Soldier Settlement Board minerals. A 1991 Supreme Court of Canada decision, however, “appeared to support the province’s view on the ownership question.”
The province’s energy and resources ministry and Natural Resources Canada have been working to resolve the case through negotiations since 2004, the province said.
The land for which mineral rights now revert to the province includes just under 73,000 acres of Soldier Settlement Board lands, plus just over 11,000 acres of other mineral rights Ottawa acquired over the years through other programs.
Both Ottawa and the province also commit to another 18-month review of federal mineral holdings to identity other mineral titles that can be transferred under the terms of the settlement.
“Uncertainty” removed
Under the settlement announced last week, the province also gets an “immediate” cash payment of $32.9 million from the federal government.
According to provincial Energy and Resources Minister Bill Boyd, the settlement deal now “removes the uncertainty over ownership of these minerals and will provide future revenues for the province as the minerals are developed.”
Ottawa does not walk away entirely empty-handed, however, as the agreement also binds the province to quit its claim to another 59,300 acres of Soldier Settlement Board minerals within the boundaries of surrendered Indian reserves, to “assist the government of Canada to honour its commitments to Saskatchewan First Nations.”
As well, the province pledges to “honour any federal mineral dispositions or treaty land entitlement selections encumbering the transferred titles.”
That includes any federal dispositions that were issued to private companies and were held by those companies before the transfer of title announced last week.
“We have reached a settlement that is fair to both governments,” federal Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt said in the same release. “It demonstrates Canada’s continued commitment to working with all governments, while serving the interests of all Canadians.”
