The federal government and the B.C. provincial government have settled treaty land claims with five First Nation groups in the province, saying that the Crown has owed the money for over a century.
Federal Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller said at an April 15 press conference in Vancouver that Ottawa will provide $800 million as compensation under the settlement agreements.
The B.C. government said in a news release on the same day that the agreements resolve long-standing claims that these First Nations did not receive all of the lands owed to them under Treaty 8, which they signed in 1899.
For its part, the province will give five of the B.C. Treaty 8 Nations just under 110,000 acres, or 443 square kilometres, of Crown land in northeastern B.C. as part of the settlements. Those First Nations include Doig River, Halfway River, Saulteau, West Moberly, and Blueberry River….