A southern Alberta First Nation is battling the federal government for the right to control its own oil and gas royalties.
The Bearspaw First Nation is demanding that Ottawa no longer collect any money on its behalf and return about $50 million collected from oilpatch activity on its traditional territory.
The band alleges the government is doing a poor job of investing the savings and won’t release the funds because of Ottawa’s mistrust of First Nations to properly handle money.
The federal government has had control of band money since the late 19th century and acted as trustee of any energy royalties earned by First Nations. To this day, the government also holds on to money earned from other sources, such as the sale of land, timber and gravel.
A few other First Nations in Western Canada have succeeded in withdrawing all of their funds from the federal government, but the process has always been challenging and in one case took 16 years of legal wrangling.
The Bearspaw not only wants to access all of its funds but ensure that future revenues go straight to the First Nation. The band council wants to set up its own trust fund, which it expects will earn much more interest.
“We’re not asking for handouts. All we’re asking is to manage money that belongs to us,” Chief Darcy Dixon said in an interview.
“Today, they’re still saying, ‘Hey look, folks. You can’t look after your money. You can’t do better than we can.'”
If the First Nation wanted to withdraw a few million dollars for a housing project, it would be easy to do, Dixon said, but to take control of the entire fund is proving to be “impossible.”
Other First Nations get control of money
Bearspaw leaders say they were told by Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) on June 3, 2020, that the government would transfer all of the money to the First Nation, but the transaction still hasn’t taken place.
Dixon wrote a letter this month directly to Minister of Indigenous Services Marc Miller, urging the government to “immediately take the steps required to truly respect your commitments to us in and to proceed without further delay.”
In an emailed response to CBC News, an ISC official said the department could not comment on dealings with the Bearspaw First Nation because of confidentiality.
WATCH | How the Bearspaw First Nation spends some of its oil and gas royalties:
Bearspaw Chief Darcy Dixon says the community’s savings help subside programs and provide care for elders. 1:31
“We are committed to working collaboratively with First Nations interested in managing their trust moneys. This includes working with the Bearspaw First Nation to support their goals for their respective trust funds,” ISC spokesperson Danielle Geary said in the email.
There was no response to an interview request with Miller.
The Samson Cree Nation, located about 100 kilometres south of Edmonton, launched a legal battle against Ottawa to gain access to its money in 1989 and was eventually victorious in 2005. The following year, the federal government transferred $349 million into the First Nation’s newly created Kisoniyaminaw Heritage Trust Fund.
At the beginning of 2017, the fund had a balance of $456 million, while $202 million had been withdrawn by the Samson Cree.
Withdrawing all of its oil and gas royalties and self-managing the money had never been done before by a First Nation in Canada.
“The federal government fought tooth and nail. They spent millions and millions of dollars to prove that they were right and to really force the colonialism that we couldn’t take care of our own money,” said Stephen Buffalo, the son of former Samson chief Victor Buffalo.
Stephen Buffalo is the son of a former chief of Alberta’s Samson Cree Nation, which launched a legal battle against Ottawa to gain access to its money in 1989 and was eventually victorious in 2005. He’s optimistic that the Bearspaw First Nation will be successful in being able to manage its savings. (Kyle Bakx/CBC)
Among other accolades, Victor Buffalo was invested into the Order of Canada for his instrumental role in the Samson gaining control of its natural resource revenues.
Since then, the Ermineskin Cree Nation, located next to Samson, and the Onion Lake Cree Nation, which straddles the Alberta-Saskatchewan border, have both set up their own trust funds after many years of delays working with the federal government.
The Ermineskin trust was established in 2011 with $123 million, and it has now earned $214 million more compared with the amount that would have been paid by the federal government if the First Nation had left the money under Ottawa’s control, according to the fund’s 2020 annual report.
Since inception, the fund’s annualized rate of return is 10 per cent, compared with 2.17 per cent if the money had been left under government oversight.
Onion Lake’s fund began in 2016 with more than $44 million after what it calls a “long and difficult struggle” to gain control of its own money. Since then, the trust has paid out $59 million to the First Nation and has a balance of just over $37 million. The annualized rate of return is nearly 11 per cent.
All three First Nations initiated legal action in their efforts to take control of their money from Ottawa.
‘Canada should be transparent’
“It’s really sad that the federal government thinks that we couldn’t manage this ourselves,” said Stephen Buffalo, who is optimistic that the Bearspaw First Nation will be successful in being able to manage its savings.
“If the precedent is set for this circumstance to take control of your own oil and gas revenue money, I think they just have to move forward,” said Buffalo, who is president of the Calgary-based Indian Resource Council, which represents First Nations that have oil and gas production — or potential production — on their land.
The Bearspaw First Nation promotes its proposed trust fund on a billboard along the Trans-Canada Highway west of Calgary. A few other First Nations in Western Canada have succeeded in withdrawing all of their funds from the federal government after taking legal action. (Kyle Bakx/CBC)
The Bearspaw is one of three bands that make up the Stoney Nakoda Nation. Last year, each band passed a resolution allowing the Bearspaw to withdraw its per-capita share of the money the federal government was holding for the Stoney Nakoda Nation.
“Canada should be transparent about why they’re delaying or why they can’t hand over control over capital,” said Brad Bryan, an assistant professor in the law faculty at the University of Victoria who teaches and researches First Nation fiscal relations.
The current financial arrangement with Ottawa is similar to having to ask your parents in advance for every dollar that you spend, he said.
Any financial abuses by First Nation members are limited and rare, Bryan said.
“In my experience, when I have been working as a lawyer in communities, I found the level of financial literacy among members — and not just council members — to be extremely high,” he said.
In 2017, the National Indigenous Economic Development Board — which provides strategic policy advice to Ottawa on Indigenous economic development — produced a report about the issue at the request of the standing Senate committee on aboriginal peoples.
Among its recommendations, the board said the federal government should “make every effort to work with First Nations and First Nation institutions to overcome internal policy and legislative barriers that impede First Nation control over Indian moneys.”
The report said Ottawa should use the guiding principle: “Indian moneys should be in the hands of First Nations, not the Government of Canada.”
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Dollarama Inc.’s food aisles may have expanded far beyond sweet treats or piles of gum by the checkout counter in recent years, but its chief executive maintains his company is “not in the grocery business,” even if it’s keeping an eye on the sector.
“It’s just one small part of our store,” Neil Rossy told analysts on a Wednesday call, where he was questioned about the company’s food merchandise and rivals playing in the same space.
“We will keep an eye on all retailers — like all retailers keep an eye on us — to make sure that we’re competitive and we understand what’s out there.”
Over the last decade and as consumers have more recently sought deals, Dollarama’s food merchandise has expanded to include bread and pantry staples like cereal, rice and pasta sold at prices on par or below supermarkets.
However, the competition in the discount segment of the market Dollarama operates in intensified recently when the country’s biggest grocery chain began piloting a new ultra-discount store.
The No Name stores being tested by Loblaw Cos. Ltd. in Windsor, St. Catharines and Brockville, Ont., are billed as 20 per cent cheaper than discount retail competitors including No Frills. The grocery giant is able to offer such cost savings by relying on a smaller store footprint, fewer chilled products and a hearty range of No Name merchandise.
Though Rossy brushed off notions that his company is a supermarket challenger, grocers aren’t off his radar.
“All retailers in Canada are realistic about the fact that everyone is everyone’s competition on any given item or category,” he said.
Rossy declined to reveal how much of the chain’s sales would overlap with Loblaw or the food category, arguing the vast variety of items Dollarama sells is its strength rather than its grocery products alone.
“What makes Dollarama Dollarama is a very wide assortment of different departments that somewhat represent the old five-and-dime local convenience store,” he said.
The breadth of Dollarama’s offerings helped carry the company to a second-quarter profit of $285.9 million, up from $245.8 million in the same quarter last year as its sales rose 7.4 per cent.
The retailer said Wednesday the profit amounted to $1.02 per diluted share for the 13-week period ended July 28, up from 86 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
The period the quarter covers includes the start of summer, when Rossy said the weather was “terrible.”
“The weather got slightly better towards the end of the summer and our sales certainly increased, but not enough to make up for the season’s horrible start,” he said.
Sales totalled $1.56 billion for the quarter, up from $1.46 billion in the same quarter last year.
Comparable store sales, a key metric for retailers, increased 4.7 per cent, while the average transaction was down2.2 per cent and traffic was up seven per cent, RBC analyst Irene Nattel pointed out.
She told investors in a note that the numbers reflect “solid demand as cautious consumers focus on core consumables and everyday essentials.”
Analysts have attributed such behaviour to interest rates that have been slow to drop and high prices of key consumer goods, which are weighing on household budgets.
To cope, many Canadians have spent more time seeking deals, trading down to more affordable brands and forgoing small luxuries they would treat themselves to in better economic times.
“When people feel squeezed, they tend to shy away from discretionary, focus on the basics,” Rossy said. “When people are feeling good about their wallet, they tend to be more lax about the basics and more willing to spend on discretionary.”
The current economic situation has drawn in not just the average Canadian looking to save a buck or two, but also wealthier consumers.
“When the entire economy is feeling slightly squeezed, we get more consumers who might not have to or want to shop at a Dollarama generally or who enjoy shopping at a Dollarama but have the luxury of not having to worry about the price in some other store that they happen to be standing in that has those goods,” Rossy said.
“Well, when times are tougher, they’ll consider the extra five minutes to go to the store next door.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
TORONTO – The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ordered TD Bank Group to pay US$28 million for repeatedly sharing inaccurate, negative information about its customers to consumer reporting companies.
The agency says TD has to pay US$7.76 million in total to tens of thousands of victims of its illegal actions, along with a US$20 million civil penalty.
It says TD shared information that contained systemic errors about credit card and bank deposit accounts to consumer reporting companies, which can include credit reports as well as screening reports for tenants and employees and other background checks.
CFPB director Rohit Chopra says in a statement that TD threatened the consumer reports of customers with fraudulent information then “barely lifted a finger to fix it,” and that regulators will need to “focus major attention” on TD Bank to change its course.
TD says in a statement it self-identified these issues and proactively worked to improve its practices, and that it is committed to delivering on its responsibilities to its customers.
The bank also faces scrutiny in the U.S. over its anti-money laundering program where it expects to pay more than US$3 billion in monetary penalties to resolve.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
