The federal government can make a policy change to reflect treaty annuities modernization but it will not likely do this on its own. It would fall on an opposition party to introduce a private member’s public bill, such as this one, to reflect a policy change from nominalism towards modernization and to obligate the government to adopt a national plan and report back to parliament on that plan within a specific time period. To further remove the issue from the hands of Indigenous Affairs/Indigenous Services and from band councils and stress the individual rights nature of the issue, the bill would authorize the Canada Revenue Agency to distribute the benefit.
Read entire Blueprint here: PSPBlue03_ModernizingTreaties_OC3020_F1
Joseph Quesnel is a research associate with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.
