SUMMARY OF OUR LAND CODE

 

The Framework Agreement on First Nation Land Management was signed by the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and 13 First Nations on February 12, 1996. One other First Nation was added as of December 1997. The Agreement was ratified by Canada through the First Nations Land Management Act, assented to June 17, 1999.

 

The Agreement is an initiative by these 14 First Nations to take over the governance and management control of their lands and resources. This First Nation designed and driven Framework Agreement with Canada has expanded from the original 14 First Nation signatories to 118 First Nation Signatories in 2015. The Framework Agreement applies only to those First Nations who choose to ratify it.

 

The Framework Agreement is not a treaty and does not affect existing treaty or other constitutional rights of the First Nations. The Framework Agreement provides the option to govern and manage reserve lands outside the Indian Act. The option to regain control of reserve land through a land code can only be undertaken with the consent of the community. A land code replaces approximately 34 sections of the Indian Act.

 

Madawaska Maliseet First Nation was added as a signatory to the Framework Agreement on March 3, 2014. In order to regain the control provided under the Framework Agreement, MMFN must create and enact our own Land Code and enter into an Individual Agreement with Canada.

 

Please visit the links to the right, for current drafts, and final versions, of the various documents necessary to complete the MMFN Land Code vote.

 

POTENTIAL BENEFITS

 

The Madawaska Maliseet First Nation (MMFN) Land Code would allow MMFN, for example, to:

 

• make timely business and land decisions without having to go to the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs for approval (for example, Council could approve leases without having to go through AANDC);

• pass and enforce our own laws for environmental management/protection and for the protection of cultural heritage and values;

• deal with the disposition of marital property in a way that does not discriminate between men and women;

• have clearer, expanded powers of protection against federal expropriation; and

• increased accountability to our members.

 

 

CLICK HERE to read the press release on MMFN's adhesion to the Framework Agreement

 

CLICK HERE to watch the APTN coverage of the adhesion ceremony