No new federal legislation has been enacted that specifically eliminates the requirement for Indigenous Rights Holders to extinguish their inherent or Treaty rights as a prerequisite for entering into a comprehensive land claims or self-government agreement. The federal Comprehensive Land Claims Policy (1986) and Inherent Right Policy (1995), both of which historically operated on a paradigm of “cede, release, and surrender” and its successor language of modification, remain in force at the federal level. Substantial reform has occurred at the policy level, including the 2019 Recognition and Reconciliation of Rights Policy for Treaty Negotiations in British Columbia, which is the first major Canadian negotiation policy whose central feature is that negotiations recognize the continuation of rights without modification, surrender, or extinguishment when a treaty is reached, and which formally replaces the federal Comprehensive Land Claims and Inherent Right policies in British Columbia.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (UNDA) Action Plan, released in June 2023, includes Shared Priority Measure 23 committing Canada to issue a public statement outlining its rights-based approach to negotiations to replace both the Comprehensive Land Claims Policy and the Inherent Right Policy at the federal level. As of late 2025 the public statement contemplated by Measure 23 has not been issued. An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families (Bill C-92, 2019), which came into force on January 1, 2020, is the most developed example of new federal legislation that recognizes Indigenous jurisdiction without requiring extinguishment of inherent rights, although its subject matter is child and family services rather than land. As of March 31, 2025, 89 Indigenous Governing Bodies had declared intent to exercise jurisdiction under C-92, 45 had completed laws, 15 coordination agreements had been signed, and 14 Indigenous laws had come into force across six provinces.4 The Supreme Court of Canada’s February 2024 dismissal of Quebec’s constitutional challenge to C-92 reinforced the constitutional viability of legislation that recognizes Indigenous jurisdiction without extinguishment.
