February 5, 2014 AFN Infrastructure Conference Peter Sullivan - Surveyor General Dr. Brian Ballantyne - Senior Advisor

Parcel renewal & land management = Infrastructure on Reserves

Surveyor General Branch

  CLS Act: Surveys on Reserves

  Process: Issues instructions, reviews plans, registers surveys.

  Standards: Manual, MyCLSS; opinions.

  Annual volume: 1,000 instructions, 1,800 plans, 6,000 parcels.

  Jurisdictional bounds: Between Reserves and Crown/fee simple lands.

Revising survey standards (Manual of Instructions) to increase efficiency

Regional structure

  Liaison offices (points of contact): Amherst, Quebec, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Vancouver, Whitehorse, Yellowknife & Iqaluit

  Process offices: Edmonton & Ottawa

  Work with: First Nations, Provinces & other federal departments (Justice, Aboriginal Affairs, Public Works)

Parcels enable economic development

  Subdivisions (commercial & residential)   FNLMA (Reserve extent, watercourse, roads)

  Additions to Reserves (e.g. TLE)

  Designations (for leasing etc.)

  Innovation (e.g. renewal)

  Litigation/specific claims

Parcels = First Nations’ integrated land management regime

  Comprehensive claims

  Full self-government

  Sectoral self-government

  FNLMA

  FNCIDA (referential incorporation)

  Indian Act, s.81

  Informal (community-centric)

Initiatives

  Parcel fabric index

  Renewal pilots (N = 5)

  Methodology for engaging Reserves

  Participatory/community mapping: Crowd-sourcing

  Link with integrated land management

  Outreach: AFN, ACLS, NALMA, FN4LM, LAB-RC, FNTC

575 First Nations; 3,100 IR; 35,524 sq km

Six Nations Reserve (18,000 ha - 10,000 people) Sand Point Reserve (987 ha - 0 people)

Vary in area, population, parcel fabric

Honour of the Crown = Minimal impairment

Parcels

  Define locations: Formal & informal interests in land; for analytical (location-based) purposes

  Formal: Registered in CLSR (generally defined by survey)

  Informal: Not registered in CLSR (defined through occupation, or by engineering/non-CLS plan)

Subdivision surveys

Subdivision surveys

Parcel fabric index (PFI): 1 1( )2 2

12

TNI VP OGI IOB INP IUM OGEPFI

TNI VP OGI

+ + − + + +=

+ +

Parcel Fabric Index (PFI) Equation

PFI = Parcel Fabric Index (between 0 and 1) TNI = Count of total number of improvements on Reserve VP = Count of vacant parcels (formal parcels with no improvements thereon) OGI = Count of oil and gas improvements OGE = Count of oil and gas errors (oil and gas improvements encroaching over formal parcel boundaries or without formal parcels) IOB = Count of improvements on boundaries (improvements encroaching over formal parcel boundaries) INP = Count of improvements without formal parcels (ad-hoc development) IUM = Count of improvements on un-maintained parcels

Findings:

Mean PFI 0.61 Median 0.72

Standard Deviation 0.33

Minimum PFI 0

Maximum PFI 1

Count 118

Mean PFI 0.61

Median 0.72

Standard Deviation 0.33

Minimum PFI 0

Maximum PFI 1

Count 118

Parcel fabric renewal

Uashat IR (Quebec)

  The First Nation had created many of its own parcels   Informal survey (monuments & plans) of block corners

  Informal parcels integrated (some shifting of bounds to accommodate occupation);   Formal parcels surveyed

Brokenhead IR (Manitoba):

  Occupation as the basis for formal parcels

  Awaiting the community-led land use planning exercise, which will approve the parcel fabric

Mount Currie IR 1 (BC)

4 Findings:

  Many coherent informal parcels (some mapped; many fenced; most bounded).

  Reconciling formal and informal parcels is at community discretion (social process requiring much negotiation/discussion).

  First Nations will drive renewal: political will, lands capacity (funding & expertise), development pressure, planning tools.

  SGB will reduce disconnect between ground (informal) & registry (formal).

How to determine which Reserves might benefit from renewal?

Participatory/community mapping:

  Engages First Nation communities

  Increases links between First Nations & SGB

  Builds links among First Nations

  Encourages land use planning

  Enhances SGB capacity

Step 3 – Open up the map

Community-led map: Informal parcels

Integrated land management –Triggers:

  Economic development

  Demand (community-driven)

  Land use planning – Community plan; official plan; zoning plan

  FNLMA (49 communities with land codes; 56 developing same)

Watercourse as bound

Accretion to riparian parcel

Travelled road

Road access