Land Value, Indigenous Rights, and Justice

Canada is built on land, and the story of that land is inseparable from the story of dispossession. Long before Confederation, First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples stewarded these territories according to legal orders that treated land as a shared inheritance. Land was not a commodity; it was a source of life, a teacher, a set of reciprocal obligations, and the basis of political sovereignty.

The imposition of private ownership, Crown title, and property taxation fractured those relationships. The economic systems that followed, including speculation, enclosure, and the capture of rising land values by private owners, continue to shape Canada’s inequalities. Today, Indigenous peoples bear disproportionate burdens from these structures: higher housing costs, lower access to land, and systems of taxation designed without them in mind.

A Land Value Tax, LVT, and a broader commitment to land value capture offer an opportunity to correct this imbalance. These tools align with Indigenous philosophies of land stewardship, strengthen Indigenous jurisdiction, prevent extractive forms of speculation, and offer a practical mechanism for restitution and reconciliation.

This page introduces these ideas.

The Foundational Injustice: Dispossession and the Transfer of Land Wealth

How the land was taken, and how its value was redirected

Canada’s economic geography is built on the expropriation of Indigenous lands and the transfer of their rising value to settlers, governments, and private owners. Indigenous peoples were confined to small reserves, often on marginal land, while the economic rent generated by resource-rich and urbanizing territories flowed elsewhere (Source: RCAP Report, 1996).

Over generations, federal and provincial property regimes entrenched private ownership, allowing landholders to capture unearned increases in value generated by: population growth; public infrastructure; economic development; and government services.

This model created what scholars describe as a “wealth transfer system,” where the benefits of the land accrue to titleholders rather than to the original stewards or to the public.

Land, Value, and Indigenous Worldviews

Land is not a commodity; it is a shared foundation

Many Indigenous traditions view land as a relative, not a resource. The land provides gifts, and these gifts impose reciprocal responsibilities. The value that arises from land, including fertility, water, timber, minerals, and the economic advantages of location, belongs to the community, not to individuals.

These concepts are widely expressed in the many varied traditions across Turtle Island:

• the Haudenosaunee principle that land cannot be sold because it is held collectively for future generations

• Coast Salish teachings that land is governed by relationships and obligations

• Métis and Dene traditions emphasizing land as part of a network of kinship and responsibility

These philosophies align closely with the principle of land value capture: the idea that increases in land value should return to the community that creates them.

Preventing Colonially Rooted Inequities in Indigenous Tax Jurisdiction

Indigenous governments increasingly exercise taxation authority

Many First Nations now levy property taxes, business taxes, and service charges under frameworks such as: the First Nations Fiscal Management Act; local revenue laws; and modern treaty arrangements.

This authority is a critical expression of sovereignty. However, adopting property taxes as they currently exist risks importing colonial distortions: taxing buildings discourages construction and economic development; property taxes often fall heaviest on low-income residents; rising land values can be captured by private titleholders, including non-Indigenous residents; and speculative investment can price community members out of their own territories.

How LVT offers a corrective

LVT protects Indigenous jurisdiction by: taxing only the land value itself, not homes, businesses, or community investment; discouraging land hoarding by non-member landholders; ensuring that rising land values benefit the Nation rather than outside speculators; encouraging efficient, community-directed land use; and preventing colonial-style wealth extraction from Indigenous territories.

The economic rent of the land stays with the Nation that holds jurisdiction, rather than leaking to external investors or absentee owners.

Examples of land value capture used by Indigenous or Indigenous-aligned jurisdictions around the world include Māori land trusts in Aotearoa New Zealand and Native Hawaiian land stewardship models. Both limit speculative capture and ensure communal benefit (Source: New Zealand Productivity Commission, 2022).

A Practical Path Toward Restitution, Reconciliation, and Treaty Renewal

Canada-wide land value capture as a mechanism for restorative justice

If land value increases because of public investment and collective growth, then a portion of this value should help fulfill obligations that Canada has acknowledged but rarely met, including: treaty commitments; housing and infrastructure gaps; land back initiatives; environmental restoration; Indigenous governance capacity; and programs for health, education, and cultural renewal.

Land value capture offers a structurally sound, non-extractive way to finance these commitments. 

A modern form of treaty implementation

Treaties were not conceived as one-time land transactions. They were agreements to share the land and its gifts. Returning a portion of land-based economic rent aligns with the original spirit of those treaties.

This approach strengthens reconciliation in three ways: it provides restitution by returning some of the wealth generated from traditional Indigenous lands to Indigenous peoples; it provides recognition by affirming Indigenous jurisdiction over land value decisions; and it provides acknowledgement by avoiding taxes on homes, labour, or improvements, and other colonial practices that historically targeted Indigenous livelihoods.

Avoiding the mistakes of the past

Colonially imposed property tax systems punished investment, rewarded idle ownership, and allowed non-resident titleholders to accumulate unearned gains. An Indigenous-led LVT reverses these dynamics: it rewards community-building; supports self-determined development; protects affordability for members; and ensures that rising land value strengthens the Nation, not outside investors.

Building a Shared Future on Shared Land

A stronger Canada through Indigenous leadership in land policy

Indigenous Nations are already demonstrating leadership in tax innovation, land governance, and community planning. As Canada confronts housing shortages, affordability crises, and growing economic inequality, Indigenous approaches to land value and stewardship offer practical guidance.

LVT supports both Indigenous jurisdiction and national reconciliation. It provides: a framework consistent with Indigenous knowledge; a shield against speculative extraction; a mechanism for returning land-created wealth to the community; a tool for fulfilling treaty and moral obligations; and a pathway toward economic sovereignty for Indigenous governments.

A just relationship to land is the foundation of a just relationship between peoples. LVT offers one of the clearest and most practical tools for rebuilding that relationship.