Self-governing Yukon First Nations aren't about to take no for an answer from Ottawa when it comes to negotiating financial arrangements, says Grand Chief Ruth Massie of the Council for Yukon First Nations.

Massie said in a recent interview Ottawa has a legal obligation to negotiate financial transfer arrangements with the 11 First Nations which have signed self-government agreements.

Ottawa is not in any position to decide on its own that it wants to establish a new Canada-wide formula to provide core funding to self-governing First Nations, she said.

"In our self-government agreements, we have a commitment to negotiate financial support for implementing our agreements, the land claims and self-government agreements,” Massie said. "It is a fiduciary obligation, signed, sealed and delivered.”

Massie said the national Land Claims Agreements Coalition representing 23 First Nations with modern day treaties – including the 11 Yukon First Nations – has also rejected the federal initiative to impose a one-size, fits-all formula.

Ottawa, she said, has been pushing the idea for about a year now, though federal officials are not sharing what they have in mind.

As a means of meeting the federal government half-way, the First Nations have offered to assist in developing a new financing strategy if that's what Ottawa wants, Massie explained.

"And they said, ‘no, we want to control it,'” she said. "And that is all there was.

"Well, our agreements do not say that. They say we control it.”

Massie said the Yukon's self-government agreements clearly set out the federal government's legal obligation to negotiate financial transfer agreements with each First Nation.

The agreements also state the negotiations shall ensure First Nations are able to provide the same level of service as the Yukon government provides with the funding it receives from Ottawa through its annual financial transfer arrangement.

Under the Yukon aboriginal land claim process, the Umbrella Final Agreement was signed in 1993 as the blueprint to negotiate individual land claim and self-government agreements with the 14 Yukon First Nations.

The land claim agreements, which deal with land, financial compensation, resource management authorities and long list of other matters, are enshrined in and protected by the Constitution of Canada.

Because the agreements are part of the Constitution, they cannot be altered without the consent of all three parties: the First Nations, the Yukon government and Ottawa.

The self-government agreements provide the First Nations with the ability to take over control of a wide range of responsibilities, from justice to child welfare, from education to wills and testaments, and from language to pollution control.

The self-government agreements, however, are not enshrined in or protected by the Constitution, as Ottawa refused to go that route when the Umbrella Final Agreement was signed in 1993.

Federal officials did not make themselves available for comment this week.

Three of the 14 Yukon First Nations refused to enter into land claim and self-government agreements.

Massie said the 11 Yukon First Nations with agreements and the other members of the coalition are already facing inadequate funding coming through their financial transfer arrangements.

Seven of the 11 renewed financial arrangements with Ottawa last spring, three signed off in December and the Carcross-Tagish First Nation is still without a new arrangement, Massie pointed out.

"They have a lot of issues in with their FTA because it is totally inadequate with what they have in Carcross.”

Massie said federal officials want to bring the new formula financing proposal to federal cabinet this year.

For their part, Yukon First Nations and the other members of the Land Claims Agreements Coalition will ensure cabinet is aware of Ottawa's legal obligation to negotiate the financial arrangements, Massie said.

In federal documents available to explain Ottawa's interest in changing the funding arrangements, federal officials maintain a one-size-fits-all formula will be more transparent and more efficient, while continuing to recognize First Nations' needs.