OTTAWA - Canada's auditor general has been asked to probe millions of dollars spent on failed land-claim talks between the federal government and the Lubicon Cree in Alberta.
The trustee of the now-defunct Lubicon Legal Defence Fund says taxpayers should know why costly negotiations drag on for years -- often with no results. Ron Kaplansky has formally asked Sheila Fraser to assess Lubicon settlement talks between 1998 and 2004, when they broke down.
The remote Lubicon Lake Indian Nation in northern Alberta was missed when a federal commission negotiated a sweeping treaty with other bands in 1899.
Federal officials say the Lubicon have refused to compromise in order to reach a settlement.
The Lubicon say they were offered a take-it-or-leave-it deal that did not fairly compensate them for oil-and-gas development on their traditional lands.
