The black letter of the Huron-Robinson Treaty covering parts of south-central Ontario is pretty plain: there will be annual payments in exchange for a land settlement, and the amount would be adjusted "from time to time." Since it has not been adjusted since 1875, there's a lot of back money owing. Taking 150 years to sort this out --- really? That's the gist of the recent Supreme Court of Canada ruling.
But as far as I can tell from reading contemporary thinking about treaty implementation, the more promising solution is to assume that all these treaties were and are agreements to share the land. On that basis, First Nations should be able to draw revenues from their share of taxation and other land revenues sufficient to cover their own self-government and administration. That seems in all ways better than simply enlarging the payouts from Mother Ottawa.
But it still feels that Canada is a long way from that understanding -- the recent Haida land title agreement notwithstanding. Pending it, there will be bills like these to be paid.
