This was the case with the Cree over the massive James Bay hydroelectric dams in northern Quebec, the Innu over the Voisey's Bay nickel mine in Labrador, the Inuit over diamond mines in the Northwest Territories, and the 1999 creation of the new territory of Nunavut, the largest land-claim settlement in Canadian history.

ECONOMIST: Canada

But federal transfers are likely to decline, when the neighbouring Northwest Territories is divided in 1999 and the new Nunavut administration in Canada's eastern Arctic requires start-up funds.

ECONOMIST: Spirit of 1998