In 2004, the Métis Nation of Ontario signed a landmark interim Harvesting Agreement with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources—the first negotiated agreement of its kind signed by any Métis Government within the Métis Homeland.
The Agreement recognized MNO’s Harvesting Policy on an interim basis and provided for the recognition of a maximum of 1,250 Harvesters Cards—as well as a pathway to remove the cap on the number of recognized MNO Harvester Cards in the future based on an Independent Review.
The 2004 interim Harvesting Agreement also included an MNO-MNR Harvesting Agreement Map. This map outlined areas within Ontario where there was believed to be credible Métis rights assertions which would satisfy the Powley test based on existing evidence.
The 2004 interim Harvesting Agreement, which included the 2004 MNO-MNR Harvesting Agreement Map, was celebrated by Métis and First Nations leaders alike.
Even at the time of the 2004 interim Harvesting Agreement’s signing, it was recognized that the MNO-MNR Harvesting Agreement Map would need to be refined sometime in the future through additional historical research, Métis traditional knowledge, traditional land use studies, input from harvesters, and future legal developments.
The MNO has since completed that additional research and further refined its Traditional Harvesting Territories Map to exclusively include only those areas where Métis communities and their section 35 harvesting rights claims are indisputably supported by robust, objectively verifiable evidence, which meets the criteria of the Powley test.
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