The Government of Canada is not obligated to reach a financial agreement with the Teslin Tlingit Council to support its self-governing authority, says federal lawyer Eden Alexander.

Alexander told Yukon Supreme Court Justice Ron Veale on Tuesday the land claim and self-government agreements Canada has with Teslin requires the parties to negotiate financial support for a self-government arrangement.

They do not require an agreement be reached, she said.

Alexander told the judge the issue of funding self-government agreements is an extremely complex matter involving many factors.

It is not cut and dry by any means, she added.

Alexander said the mechanism to provide Yukon First Nations with self-governing authority is provided through a three-party agreement among Canada, the First Nations and the Yukon government.

The responsibility to fund self-government arrangements falls to all three parties, and not just Canada, she argued.

The federal lawyer told Veale the proposal put forward by the Teslin Council last year for a five-year renewal of its financial transfer agreement to support its self-governing authority calls for $300 million in funding.

The proposal does not lay out what portion Canada is expected to pay, she said.

Alexander said the federal government has asked questions about the proposal, and is seeking clarifications about the proposal because the federal government has an obligation to Canadians to ensure their money is being spent appropriately.

The government is not trying to stall negotiations as the council has suggested but is simply fulfilling its duty to ensure a funding arrangement is fair for all parties, she suggested yesterday.

The Teslin Tlingit Council is suing Canada, arguing the federal government is in breach of its obligation to properly fund its self-governing ambitions.

It maintains Canada has not come to the table with any real negotiating mandate to support Teslin’s self-government aspirations since it signed off its land claim and self-government agreements in 1995.

Rather, Canada has essentially put a number on the table and First Nations have been put in position of take it, or leave it, the senior aboriginal rights lawyer representing Teslin suggested in his arguments Monday and Tuesday.

The Teslin Tlingit Council is asking Veale to declare Canada has a legal obligation bound by the Constitution of Canada to negotiate a fair deal based on the real costs of governing.

The First Nation is asking Veale to declare the funding be based on all Teslin Tlingit citizens, status Indians and non-status Indians, and not just the number of status Indians Canada uses to base its funding.

Canada began arguing its defence Tuesday afternoon and continued this morning.

Veale said this morning from what he sees, Canada did not negotiate but rather dictated the amounts of the financial transfer agreements to support self-government in the Yukon from 1995 onward, right through to 2015.

The federal lawyer spent much of the morning explaining how Canada has spent the last three years since 2015 working collaboratively and exhaustively with self-governing First Nations across Canada, including the Yukon First Nations. Their efforts have focused on developing an acceptable framework on which to negotiate financial transfer agreements to support self-government, she said.

Following the election of his government in 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there would be a new relationship with Canada’s First Nations, Alexander told Veale.

She said the mandate letter Trudeau provided to Aboriginal Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett called for a new relationship with the country’s First Nations, and it instructed Bennett to create a new financial relationship with First Nations.

While the Teslin Tlingit Council withdrew from the collaborative approach in September 2016, it has been kept informed of developments, Alexander told the judge.

She said in December of last year the federal cabinet approved a new policy to negotiate financial transfer agreements for self-governing First Nations, though there is still some work required to tie it all together, but it has been approved.

The policy, she told Veale, lays out what federal negotiators must take into consideration when negotiating the transfer agreements. It says the negotiators must take into consideration that self-governing First Nations may be providing services to more than just its citizens who are registered status Indians, she said.

Alexander said the policy dictates negotiators must strive for financial transfer agreements on the basis of providing self-governing First Nations with the ability to provide services to its citizens at a comparable level to other governments.

Alexander and another federal lawyer were scheduled to wrap up their submissions this afternoon.

Of the 14 Yukon First Nations, 11 have land claim and self-government agreements.