Cattle producers in Saskatchewan’s southwest can breathe easier as the first competing claims for their crown-owned pastures have been denied.
Last fall, the Saskatchewan First Nations of Poundmaker and Carry the Kettle selected 37,000 acres of crown-owned pastureland with expiring leases in southwestern Saskatchewan. Under treaty land entitlement, or TLE, the First Nations have the right to buy available crown land.
Area cattle producers who rent the land are concerned they will not be allowed to renew their leases, which means losing access to the pastures or negotiating new arrangements with the First Nations’ owners.
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Poundmaker First Nations did a TLE claim on 6,880 acres of environmentally sensitive pastureland in the Great Sand Hills. That claim was denied Dec. 18. A similar claim, denied Jan. 2, was made by Carry the Kettle for 22,265 acres of land located in several rural municipalities in the same area.
Greg Haase of Saskatchewan Government’s lands branch said the provincial environment department opposed the application to convert the land to reserve status because of the fragility of the ecosystem. The second application that was denied included land on the shores of the South Saskatchewan River near Lake Diefenbaker. That claim was opposed by the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority.
Much of the 37,000 acres claimed in the southwest has undeveloped oil and gas potential. Area ranchers are concerned that their traditional claims to the land are being threatened by the desire of the native bands to develop mineral rights.
Dustin Fyke is a third generation lease holder and cattle producer in the region. He is a member of a grazing co-op whose lease is up for renewal and has been selected under the TLE process.
“We recognize the First Nations’ rights to TLE and we can appreciate them. We have rights too. We have been leasing that land for generations and have a right to renew those leases.
“We couldn’t buy that land, we couldn’t develop minerals on that land. We could graze it and that was all … without that land many of us will be out of business,” said Fyke.
“Mineral development is not a higher purpose than agriculture. And for this land to be sold under a TLE without our agreement breaches our leases and our relationship with the government,” said Fyke.
Affected producers are meeting Jan. 9 in Maple Creek, Sask., to form a leaseholder association and plan how to address their lease renewals, many of which expire before the end of March.
The provincial cabinet is required to rule on whether treaty land entitlements apply to the pastures or whether leases will be renewed.
