Talks on how many billions in annuities Canada, Ontario owe Robinson Superior First Nations begin this week

Canada is expected to present a settlement offer this week to First Nations of Robinson Superior treaty territory in a longstanding case involving annuities owed to the Anishinaabe on the northern shores of the Great Lakes.

Once the offer expected Friday is received, it'll kick off negotiations to partially settle a claim that dates back to 1999 and could be worth dozens of billions of dollars.

Lawyers for the Robinson Superior communities anticipate Ontario will make its own offer sometime around the new year, as a deadline imposed by the Supreme Court of Canada looms over the two Crown governments.

In its landmark decision earlier in June, the top court told the federal and provincial governments that they had until Jan. 26 to make offers.

According to the ruling, the First Nations could request an extension, but Canada and Ontario cannot.

"We'll hold the Crown's feet to the fire here in order to secure justice," said Brian Gover, one of the lawyers for the Robinson Superior Anishinaabe.

If the parties fail to agree to past annuities owing, it'll be up to the courts to decide fair compensation for the Crown having made a "mockery" of a promise central to the treaty relationship between Canada, Ontario and the First Nations, the Supreme Court decision says.

The other group involved in this historic annuities case — the 21 communities in Robinson Huron treaty territory — settled out of court for $10 billion in 2023, with Ontario and Canada each paying half.

Together with Robinson Superior, the cases centre on a promise dating back to 1850. Both treaties have nearly identical wording and contain a unique escalator clause.

The Robinson treaties promised the Anishinaabe that the annual payments they received from the Crown in exchange for the right to extract resources from their land would increase according to the wealth produced in the territory. 

But these annuities were capped at $4 per person in 1874 and haven't increased since, despite the lucrative profits of the mining, timber and fishing industries — hence a legal battle for fair past and present annuities that has now spanned more than two decades.

The First Nations of Robinson Superior and Robinson Huron treaty territories launched their legal challenges in an Ontario court in 1999 and 2012, respectively. 

They were grouped together for the first stages of the trial, which determined that the Crown had a duty and legal obligation to increase payments, both retroactively and going forward.

The Ontario government appealed these findings, eventually taking the case to Canada's top court.