Treaty Land Entitlement and Specific Land Claims Tax Loss Compensation
Res #: 24-21A
Number: 24
Year: 2021
Midterm: No
Expired: No
Responses Received: Yes
Departments: Justice Canada
WHEREAS rural municipalities have an obligation to maintain roads servicing Treaty Land Entitlement Reserves and Specific Land Claims; and
WHEREAS under the Treaty Land Entitlement Framework Agreement the Municipal Tax Loss Compensation Fund was established to ensure that rural municipalities would be in a position to continue to maintain these roads despite the loss of tax revenues related to lands which would become an entitlement reserve; and
WHEREAS the fund continues to decrease and appears to be unsustainable without municipalities absorbing significant reductions in monies from the fund.
BE IT RESOLVED that SARM lobby the Federal government to conduct a review of the Rural Municipal Tax Loss Compensation Fund and initiate the necessary steps to ensure the long-term sustainability of the fund without rural municipalities having to absorb the cost of a debt that was owed by all Canadians.
Responses From: Crown-Indigenous Relations and Nothern Affairs Canada
May 31, 2021
Thank you for your March 24, 2021 letter to the Honourable David Lametti, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. As the Specific Claims Branch of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada is responsible for the federal financial obligations related to the Saskatchewan Treaty Land Entitlement Framework, I am responding to your letter.
Your letter provided a copy of resolution 24-21A which was passed at the March 2021 convention of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities and requested a response. The resolution suggests that your organization believes that the Municipal
Tax Loss Compensation Fund is being depleted and is not keeping up with the road maintenance costs incurred by rural municipalities.
The Saskatchewan Treaty Land Entitlement Framework obliges Canada to “pay to the Rural Municipal Compensation Fund seventy (70%) percent of the sum that is equivalent to ninety (90%) percent of twenty-five (25) times the Municipal Taxes which had been levied in respect of such Taxable Land in the calendar year immediately prior to the said date”. In alignment with this obligation, I understand that as municipalities raise taxes, federal payments increase accordingly. I am therefore not aware of any financial sustainability issues with the Municipal Tax Loss Compensation Fund.
As I appreciate your organization’s role in supporting the successful implementation of the Saskatchewan Treaty Land Entitlement Framework, if you would like to clarify the nature of your concerns, I would be happy to receive additional information or to
discuss. I can be reached by email at martin.reiher@canada.ca.
Martin Reiher – Assistant Deputy Minister, Resolution and Partnership Sector, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Nothern Affairs Canada
