A resolution passed at the 1997 All Ontario Chiefs Conference (AOCC) rejected INAC=s imposition of its proposed Financial Transfer Arrangement (FTA) and authorized COO to assume a leadership role in the establishment of a new fiscal relationship with the government.

It also saw an opportunity to take advantage of an INAC initiative. In it=s response to RCAP, the federal government had committed itself to working in partnership with aboriginal governments to develop new fiscal relationships which would provide more stable and predictable financing. Accountability was considered important as was encouragement for First Nations= governments to develop their own sources of revenue.

COO leadership saw this commitment as an alternative avenue to the resolution of current disputes on transfer arrangements as well as an opportunity to negotiate on a government-to-government basis rather than by the imposition of authority from above.

Saskatchewan had earlier embarked on a fiscal relations process and a COO delegation was sent on a fact-finding mission to visit with the Federation of Saskatchewan Indians (FSIN) in February 1998. It was an informative trip and while the COO delegates noted the merits of the Saskatchewan initiative they realized that with four different federations of First Nations (AIAI, UOI, NAN, GCT#3) and a number of Independents, along with its greater and more diverse population, vast geography and different treaties, a collective, Ontario-based approach would be necessary.

The Policy and Priorities Committee (PPC) decided that COO should continue with its exploratory research into a new fiscal relations framework and to date two meetings of a technical working group have taken place. However, PPC also realized that in Ontario there was already a divergent range of governance activities either underway or in the planning stages. COO has therefore taken pains to ensure that any discussions that occur at the fiscal relations working group are complementary to these other processes and do not hinder them.

The proposed COO structure for the fiscal relations process is to establish a Chiefs Committee through approval at the June AOCC (at the time of writing, AOCC had not yet taken place). PPC would then oversee a technician=s working group consisting of appointed representatives from the First Nations federations and the Independents.

COO proposes to complete a fiscal relations review of all federal and provincial funding to First Nations including transfer payments to the province. It would then complete an economic, social and demographic analysis of actual financial requirements to address social and infrastructure backlogs. It would also project cost requirements over the next two generations.

The fiscal relations negotiations process is lengthy. FSIN began in 1996 and are only now at the point of completing the financial data-gathering phase.

So far, protracted negotiations on the FTA over the past year have not yielded any productive solutions but have merely taken the first step.