17 July 1991 Administrative Letter 911293 F - Date of Entitlement to Indian Status

Please note that the following document, although believed to be correct at the time of issue, may not represent the current position of the CRA.
Prenez note que ce document, bien qu'exact au moment émis, peut ne pas représenter la position actuelle de l'ARC.

July 10, 1991

Dear Sirs:

Re:      Date of Entitlement to Indian Status pursuant to Bill C-31

In your letter of April 19, 1991, which was addressed to the Department of Finance, you request confirmation of our Department's position regarding the date of an individual's entitlement to Indian status pursuant to Bill C-31.

Section 24 of Bill C-31 provides that with the exception of sections 17 and 18 this new legislation shall come into force or be deemed to have come into force on April 17, 1985. Accordingly, the date of entitlement would be April 17, 1985 for most persons relying upon the amendments contained in Bill C-31 alone (and not on the Indian Act prior to these amendments) to establish their status. There may be cases where the effective date may be later. For example paragraph 6(1)(b) of the Indian Act, which relates to the recognition of new bands, is somewhat narrower in its application than the other paragraphs contained in section 6 and a person relying upon paragraph (b) could not come within the definition of "Indian" until the body of which he is a member has been declared to be a band.

In our view the date the application for registration is received by the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs is not relevant in determining an individual's date of entitlement to be registered as an Indian.

We trust our comments will be of assistance to you.

Yours truly,

for DirectorBusiness and General DivisionRulings DirectorateLegislative and IntergovernmentalAffairs Branch