St. John's, Nfld. — The Inuit of Labrador will govern a territory nearly the size of New Brunswick under a land claims settlement initialled Friday with Ottawa and the provincial government.
The agreement will establish a 72,500-square-kilometre area to be called Nunatsiavut, which means 'Our beautiful land' in Inuktitut.
The deal, 25 years in the making, will see a $140-million payout to the Labrador Inuit, as well as $156 million from the federal government for implementing the changes.
The Inuit will own outright 15,800 square kilometres of land and will have limited resource and management rights in the rest.
Unlike some aboriginal groups, Canada's Inuit did not sign treaties with the British Crown.
Beginning in the 1970's, Inuit across northern Canada have laid claim to the lands and resources of their traditional territories.
The 5,000-member Labrador Inuit Association is the last Inuit group in Canada to negotiate a land claims settlement.
The Nunavik Inuit of northern Quebec were the first, settling their claim in 1975 ahead of a massive Hydro-Quebec development in the region.
In 1984, the Inuvialuit of the Northwest Territories signed a deal with the federal government.
But by far the largest land claims agreement in Canadian history was signed in 1993 between Ottawa and the Inuit Tapirisat, then still part of the Northwest Territories.
The deal saw the creation of Nunavut six years later, a territory four times the size of France where Inuit comprise 85 per cent of the population of 28,000.
It has been 25 years since the Inuit first laid claim to the resource-rich lands of Labrador.
In 1978, Ottawa agreed to negotiate with the Labrador Inuit but it would be 1990 before a framework and schedule for those negotiations were drafted.
A massive nickel deposit was discovered in Voisey's Bay in 1994, 50 kilometres southwest of the community of Nain — right in the middle of the Inuit land claim.
Two years later, all three parties agreed to fast-track negotiations.
An agreement in principle was signed in June 2001 and an interim measures agreement was put in place while negotiations continued toward a final agreement.
Last year, the Inuit and the Innu of Labrador — another aboriginal group that has yet to settle its land claim — signed a benefits agreement with the Voisey's Bay Nickel Company that will see the groups benefit from revenue sharing, training, hiring quotas and environmental protection.
A ratification vote on the Labrador Inuit final agreement is expected next spring.
