Would this include WPX? REGINA -- The George Gordon First Nation is suing the federal and provincial governments for $10-billion it claims it is being “cheated out of” potash and oil developments.
In the suit served on the government on Tuesday, the First Nation alleges Canada and Saskatchewan improperly denied it access to billions of dollars worth of potash and oil and gas lands through misconduct by both levels of government throughout the George Gordon Treaty Land Entitlement Settlement Agreement process. The agreement was entered into by all three parties on Aug. 11, 2008.
“The general tenor of the lawsuit is that George Gordon First Nation, like many First Nations in Saskatchewan, are still owed land by Canada and Saskatchewan and before disposing of valuable oil and gas or potash lands to third parties ... that there’s an obligation on the governments to find out from the First Nations whether they are interested in acquiring those lands first, which they did not do,” said Jeffrey R. W. Rath, an Alberta-based lawyer, who is representing the First Nation.
The leadership of George Gordon is raising a number of issues and concerns about two mines near the reserve and on land located in its traditional territory. One is an underground potash mine called the Jansen Project owned by BHP Billiton Diamonds Inc. (“BHP”) a member of BHP Billiton Group of Companies. The mine is located 75.4 kilometres away from Punnichy, where George Gordon is located.
Also in July 2008, Acron Joint Stock Company (Acron), acquired the majority shares of a Saskatchewan Corporation, which owns the rights to vast potassium deposits in lands bordering on the George Gordon reserve lands.
Rath said George Gordon had the right to select the lands in question.
In a prepared statement, Chief Glen Pratt said the lawsuit was about justice.
“As a people we are sick and tired of being cheated out of the wealth that rightly belongs to us under our treaty and Canadian and international law,” he added.
Rath said the $10-billion-figure was achieved through economists and experts.
“We’re looking at just the cost of development,” said Rath. “The cost for the BHP mine is somewhere around $8 billion. What we were advised by the experts we consulted in drafting the statement of claim is that it’s the value of resources George Gordon was not provided as a result of Canada and Saskatchewan’s actions — could potentially reach that amount if you’re looking at oil and gas lands or potash lands or whatever it is. Then economic losses as well, certainly there are different multipliers and calculations that goes into figuring out what a First Nation loses by not being able to assess taxes and royalties against people developing these resources.”
The George Gordon First Nation further alleges that Canada acted unconstitutionally by not counting all of its members or potential members in the settlement as would now be required following amendments to the Indian Act under Bill C-3 in January of 2011.
The province intends to fight the action. “At this point I can just say that we are confident in the province’s constitutional authority to be able to manage and control the natural resources of the province, and we’ll be defending the lawsuit vigorously,” said Linsay Rabyj, communications director at Saskatchewan Justice.
Read more: https://www.leaderpost.com/news/billon+lawsuit+launched+Sask+First+Nation/5975967/story.html#ixzz1j76UGdo0
