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  Metis Rights and Participation in the Forest Sector
  The Forest Home website is intended to be inclusive of all Aboriginal Peoples of Canada: First Nations, Métis, and Inuit. However, this page highlights issues and developments that affect the Métis in particular. Very few Inuit communities have commercially viable timber in their territories, and so there is no page dedicated to them at this time.
   
   
  Alberta Interim Métis Harvesting Agreement (October 2004)
  This agreement makes provisions for Métis people to hunt and fish without a license on Crown lands. On January 23, 2007, the Court of Queen's Bench ruled that this agreement is not legally enforceable. However, the decision also set aside the conviction of Métis man charged for trapping without a license, because it was deemed reasonable for the man to take the Agreement at face value as sanctioning the activity. Click here for a news release on this decision.
 

Turtle Island Native Network news and discussion forum on the Métis

  The Northern Alberta Métis Project (Métis Settlements General Council and Natural Resources Canada 2004)
  This project targeted Métis youth to determine science and technology needs; to transfer relevant information; and to build the capacity within the Settlements to manage their own natural resources. Click here for the full report or the highlights report.
   
  Frequently Asked Questions about the Powley decision (Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians)
  The Powley decision by the Supreme Court of Canada is a major landmark in the evolution of understandings about the Aboriginal rights of Métis peoples.
   
  The Phase I report of the Aboriginal Forestry Training and Education Review includes a brief passage regarding the Alberta Métis involvement in the forest sector as of 1993 (page 33).
   
  The Métis Settlements in Alberta consist of eight areas totalling 528,000 hectares. At present (late 2006), this is is the only land in Canada governed by a Métis government. "The Métis Settlements General Council (MSGC) has legislation law-making authority over membership, hunting, fishing, trapping, timber and other matters relating to land. The MSGC may enact laws (General Council policies) that are binding on the General Council and every Settlement. These laws (General Council Policies) are equal in status to other provincial laws. It also has an administrative body which includes Strategic Training Initiatives (education & training), and Programs and Services Development. MSGC also owns three companies: MSGC Oil and Gas, Settlement Investment Corporation, and Settlement Sooniyaw Corporation. " (MSGC website)
  There is very little on the topic of forestry on the MSGC website.
   
  The Northwest Communities Term Supply License (Saskatchewan) is one of very few Crown-land tenures in Canada held by a Métis organization. The License is to cut 351,000 cubic metres per year, for five years. It is owned by a consortium of seven Metis Communities (Ille a la Crosse, Buffalo Narrows, Pinehouse, Patuanak, Beauval, Green Lake, La Loche). These seven communities hold shares through a holding company (Northwest Communities Holdings Ltd). Northwest Communities Wood Products Ltd (NWCWP) is the company operating and holding the TSL license. The company has a Board of Directors overseeing business activities. Under the Board of Directors, there is provision for any number of business ventures, the main forest operations venture being Beauval Forest Industries Inc., running a post operation in Beauval. The company NWCWP is also involved, through a complex formula, with a share holding in the Meadow Lake Oriented Strandboard mill - this holding is done through the Province's own economic development Crown Corporation (Crown Investments Corporation).