jor agreements intended to implement the
Treaty, and with the various IBA’s and other
agreements with respect to the develop-
ment of our territory, we have gone quite
a long way in implementing the major rec-
ommendations of the “Royal Commission
on Aboriginal Peoples”, as well as key objec-
tives of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples.
We have vastly improved the living conditions
in our communities particularly with respect to
basic community infrastructure such as water
and sewer systems, although adequate hous-
ing stock remains a major concern. There has
been a significant improvement in the stan-
dard of living in all our Cree communities with
respect to employment and incomes levels.
We have secured an acknowledgment that
any resource development within the tradi-
tional territory must involve the Cree commu-
nity. We have successfully negotiated a reve-
nue-sharing arrangement based on the value
of resources extracted from Cree traditional
territory. There has been a major transfer of
funding by the federal government to the Cree
Nation Government to fulfill previously fed-
eral obligations. We have secured Cree con-
trol over health and social services as well as
Cree control over education. We have nego-
tiated an enhanced governance regime with
respect to the entire Cree traditional territory
with important land use and planning pow-
ers held by the Cree First Nations and similar
powers held by a unique regional government
comprised of representatives of both Cree and
non-Indigenous communities. And, along the
way, we have developed explicit Nation-to-Na-
tion relationship in all major agreements with
both Quebec and Canada, and we have nego-
tiated the elimination of the Indian Act and re-
placed it with new self-government legislation
32 BUSINESS ELITE CANADA | JULY 2018
