What was the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement?

The James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (JBNQA) was the first modern Indigenous treaty in Canada, signed on November 11, 1975. It was negotiated between the Cree of James Bay, the Inuit of Northern Quebec (Nunavik), the federal government, the Quebec government, and Hydro-Québec's James Bay Energy Corporation subsidiary (which had begun building the James Bay hydroelectric project in 1971 without Indigenous consent). The Agreement covered about 1.1 million square kilometres of northern Quebec and provided about 225 million dollars in compensation, Indigenous land and resource rights, self-government, and other benefits to about 11,000 Cree and 6,000 Inuit beneficiaries.

The Agreement was forced by Indigenous litigation. The Quebec government had begun the James Bay hydroelectric project in April 1971 without consulting the Cree or Inuit. The 600-km project would flood 11,500 square kilometres and divert major rivers in James Bay Cree traditional territory. Cree and Inuit organisations (the Indians of Quebec Association and the Northern Quebec Inuit Association) filed an injunction to halt construction in November 1972. Justice Albert Malouf of the Quebec Superior Court granted a temporary injunction on November 15, 1973 halting construction (though the Quebec Court of Appeal stayed the injunction pending negotiations). The injunction demonstrated that Indigenous title claims could halt billion-dollar projects, forcing the Quebec and federal governments to negotiate.

Negotiations from late 1973 produced the agreement-in-principle of November 15, 1974 and the final Agreement on November 11, 1975. The Agreement was implemented by the federal James Bay and Northern Quebec Native Claims Settlement Act of July 14, 1977 and the Quebec James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement Act of June 23, 1976. Major Agreement provisions included: 225 million dollars in compensation paid over 20 years; Category I lands (about 14,000 square kilometres) under Cree and Inuit ownership and exclusive use; Category II lands (about 158,000 square kilometres) with Cree and Inuit hunting, fishing, and trapping rights; Category III lands (remaining area) under Quebec Crown ownership but with Indigenous priority use of certain resources; the federal Indigenous self-government regime (producing the Cree Regional Authority, the Cree Nation Government, and the Kativik Regional Government); separate Cree and Inuit school boards; and the James Bay Mercury Agreement of 1986 addressing methylmercury contamination of fish.

The Agreement was supplemented by the Northeastern Quebec Agreement of 1978 with the Naskapi, the Paix des Braves of February 7, 2002 between the Quebec government and the Cree (extending Cree self-government to the Cree Nation Government with broader powers), the Sanarrutik Agreement of April 2002 between Quebec and Nunavik Inuit, and the Eeyou Marine Region Land Claims Agreement of February 2010. The JBNQA established the legal and political template for subsequent modern treaties including the Inuvialuit Final Agreement (1984), the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement (1993), the Yukon Umbrella Agreement (1990), the Tlicho Agreement (2003), and many others. The Cree Regional Authority is now the Cree Nation Government, with elected leadership and substantial self-government powers.