Each party in the TLE process has its own unique set of responsibilities including:
1) the entitlement First Nation’s responsibility to select and purchase land;
2) Saskatchewan’s role to make Crown land available for sale and evaluate lands
selected by the First Nations for provincial interests; and
3) the federal government’s procedures to transfer the land to reserve.
Entitlement First Nations receive monetary compensation, which enables them to
acquire their respective “shortfall acres,” which means each First Nation must acquire
and transfer to reserve status the amount of land that should have been received at the
date of fi rst survey.
Once a First Nation acquires its shortfall acres, it may use the remaining funds to
acquire additional reserve land up to its calculated “equity acres” (the maximum
number of acres that the First Nation is entitled to have transferred to reserve
status through its settlement agreement), or to enhance community and economic
development.
Canada and Saskatchewan share the costs of TLE settlement agreements; Canada
contributes 70% and Saskatchewan contributes 30%.