Negotiations to settle a longstanding case involving annuities owed to 12 First Nations along the shores of Lake Superior have broken down. 

The Supreme Court of Canada had given the federal and Ontario governments until Jan. 26 to make offers in a case estimated to be worth billions of dollars. 

The Anishnaabe Nations of Robinson Superior Treaty entered talks last month expecting a settlement offer in the dozens of billions – a lot more than the $3.6B offer Canada and Ontario made.

“They simply ignored the economic evidence about how much wealth Canada and Ontario took from our lands,” said Gull Bay First Nation chief Wilfred King.

According to the Supreme Court of Canada, the failed negotiations mean it will now be up to the courts to decide fair compensation for the Crown having made a “mockery” of the treaty over the last 175 years.

The Robinson treaties promised the Anishinaabe that the annual payments they received from the Crown in exchange for the right to extract resources from their land would increase according to the wealth produced in the territory, but they’ve been capped at $4 per person per year since 1874.

Superior Court of Ontario Justice Patricia Hennessy will now rule on who should pay the Lake Superior Anishnaabe and how much. 

Her ruling could eventually be appealed to another court, adding more years to the already decade-long legal battle.

Federal government says its offer was fair

Eric Head, spokesperson for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, says the federal government’s offer was fair, just and honourable.

“We worked closely [and] in good faith with the First Nations and Ontario over the past six months to try to reach a negotiated agreement,” he wrote. 

“Unfortunately, the parties could not find the common ground to achieve this goal in the six-month timeline provided by the Supreme Court of Canada.”

Head declined to say how much of the $3.6B offer would have come from federal coffers, saying details remain confidential at this time.

“Arriving at the compensation amount, Canada considered the factors set down by the Supreme Court of Canada, our past discussions with our treaty partners, all the facts in this case, and the evidence heard during the trial,” he continued. 

The other group of plaintiffs in this case, the 21 First Nations of Robinson Huron Treaty territory in northeastern Ontario, settled out-of-court for $10B before the last stage of the trial in 2023, with the provincial and federal governments each paying half.