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Recommendations of the McKenna McBride Royal Commission

In 1916, after three years of gathering evidence, the McKenna McBride Commission collected one volume of evidence from each of the Agencies and four volumes of statistics from the entire Commission. The Royal Commission Report was then published to present a detailed account of the work.

Railway work was enabled through Interim ReportsThe Report recommended that cut-offs be made from 54 reserves, totalling 47,055.49 acres. At the time, the land cut off had an assessed value of between $1,347,912.72 and $1,533,704.72, with the average acre valued at $26.52 to $32.36. The Report also recommended that 87,291.17 acres be added to reserve land. The added land had an assessed value of only $444,838.80, with the average acre valued at $5.10. Although the acreage of the added reserve land was nearly double that of the cut-off land, the value of the land added was approximately one-third the value of the land cut off. Only 45% of the land applications put forward by Indians were granted, in whole or in part.

The Commission recommended allocating an average of approximately 150 acres per Native family based on a registered Indian population of 24,000. However, the reserve land was not distributed equally; while some Bands were to receive nearly 700 acres per family, others were to receive less than one-tenth that amount. Coastal reserves, for instance, were to be smaller as it was assumed First Nations would have access to the ocean and its resources.

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