Jan 20/91 : Lubicon Mailout, Comparison of Lubicon Settlement Proposals with Other Contemporary Settlements

( Please note: Lubicon Nation mailing address cited below has been changed to P.O. Box 6731, Peace River, Alberta, T8S 1S5 )

Lubicon Lake Indian Nation
Little Buffalo Lake, AB
403-629-3945
FAX: 403-629-3939

Mailing address:
3536 - 106 Street
Edmonton, AB T6J 1A4
403-436-5652
FAX: 403-437-0719

For some time representatives of the Canadian Federal Government and the Alberta Provincial Government -- including Federal Indian Affairs Minister Tom Siddon and Provincial Attorney General Ken Rostad -- have been publicly claiming that proposed Lubicon settlement terms have a dollar value which "very substantially exceeds other contemporary settlements both in Alberta and elsewhere in Canada". As is sadly so often the case with claims made by representatives of the current Federal and Alberta Provincial Governments, the truth is quite different. Proposed Lubicon settlement terms are in fact well within the general parameters established by other contemporary settlements.

Over the protest of aboriginal leaders, the Canadian Government unilaterally divides and defines Indian land "claims" into "comprehensive land claims" and "specific land claims". According to the Canadian Government a "comprehensive land claim" is one where an aboriginal society never signed a treaty with the Federal Government ceding jurisdiction over its typically large traditional territory and is therefore still in a position to negotiate the terms of such a treaty. A "specific land claim" is one where and aboriginal society signed such a treaty but for whatever reasons didn't end up with the always much smaller amount of reserve land specified by that treaty, or at least didn't end up with all of the reserve land specified by that treaty, and is therefore "entitled" to whatever reserve land is specified by the treaty.

Agreement has never been reached between the Lubicon people and either level of Canadian Government as to whether Lubicon land rights are "comprehensive" or "specific". The Lubicons understandably insist that their aboriginal land rights are "comprehensive" since they've never signed a treaty with the Federal Government ceding their historic jurisdiction over their traditional lands. Both levels of Canadian Government insist that Lubicon land rights are "specific" because admitting that the Lubicon retain unextinguished aboriginal land rights would mean that the Canadian Federal Government transferred Lubicon lands to the Alberta Provincial Government without first properly obtaining rights to those lands, and that the Alberta Provincial Government therefore doesn't now exercise legitimate jurisdiction over the resource-rich traditional Lubicon territory. (In this context it's interesting to note that both levels of Canadian Government have made clear that they'll require the Lubicons to sign a formal "adhesion" to an existing treaty as part of any final settlement agreement -- something which the Federal and Provincial Governments obviously wouldn't be demanding if they really believed that the Lubicons were already a party to that treaty.)

Unable to reach agreement as whether Lubicon land rights are "comprehensive" or "specific", all discussions between the Lubicons and both levels of Canadian Government have been conducted "without prejudice" to the respective positions of the parties on the nature of Lubicon land rights. In other words the Lubicons and both levels of Canadian government agreed to disagree on the nature of Lubicon land rights while trying to reach agreement on other elements of a possible settlement -- like membership, reserve lands, reserve construction, economic development, continuing aboriginal rights and financial compensation. It was hoped that agreement on the nature of Lubicon land rights might be easier to achieve once other elements of a possible settlement had been agreed.

Under such circumstances it's necessary to now review both types of settlement agreement -- "comprehensive" and "specific" -- in order to properly assess Federal and Provincial Government claims that proposed Lubicon settlement terms have a dollar value which "very substantially exceeds other contemporary settlements both in Alberta and elsewhere in Canada". Recent "comprehensive" agreements "elsewhere in Canada" -- there are none in Alberta -- would include the James Bay Northern Quebec Agreement (1975), the Inuvialuit of the western Arctic or COPE agreement (1984), the Dene/Metis NWT Agreement-In-Principle (1988), the Yukon Agreement-in-Principle (1988) and the Inuit of the central and eastern Arctic or TFN Agreement-In-Principle (1989). Recent "specific" agreements in Alberta -- the terms of "specific" agreements elsewhere aren't readily available and in any case involve the implementation of different treaties with different terms -- would include the Fort Chip-Cree Agreement (1986), the Sturgeon Lake Agreement (1989), the Whitefish Lake Agreement 1989) and the so-called Woodland Cree Agreement-In-Principle (1990).

Comparing settlement agreements of any kind is at best a dicey business because each individual agreement consists of a complicated and basically unique combination of interrelated monetary and non-monetary components put together under significantly different and often highly influential circumstances.

Any effort to compare discrete items from such agreements which doesn't take into account these internal interrelationships and varying circumstances will inevitably paint a distorted picture. As a simple example, agreements farther north tend to provide more land and less money while agreements farther south tend to provide less land and more money. Simply comparing the smaller amount of money in a northern settlement agreement with the larger amount of money in a southern settlement agreement fails to take into account the balancing effect of a greater amount of land in the northern settlement.

Although meaningful comparisons of different settlement agreements are consequently very difficult, there are some things which make clear the deliberate falsity of Federal and Provincial Government claims that proposed Lubicon settlement terms have a dollar value which "very substantially exceeds other contemporary settlements both in Alberta and Canada". These things pertain specifically to the relationship between monies and reserve set-up costs, and the relationship between financial compensation and retained land rights.

If soft items in the Federal Government's so-called "take-it-or-leave-it" settlement offer to the Lubicons are firmed-up, the Federal Government has offered 500 Lubicons $34 million for reserve set-up costs plus the annual interest on a $10 million fund to supposedly pursue commercial and agricultural development. The estimated value of the interest on a $10 million dollar fund, based on the performance of similar funds in Alberta and Alaska, is about $450,000 to $500,000 a year after inflation. ( The Lubicons -- in detailed and publicly available cost calculations -- conservatively estimate that it will take about $70 million to build a basic reserve community and develop reserve lands for commercial and agricultural purposes.)

Supplementing the Federal Government's so-called "take-it-or-leave-it" offer, the Alberta Provincial government offered the Lubicons a non-indexed $500,000 a year for ten years toward on-reserve commercial and agricultural development -- valued because of inflation at less than $3.4 million in 1988 dollars -- plus Provincial officials have offered to set-up a trailer for 5 years just off the proposed Lubicon reserve where interested Lubicon people could take academic up-grading courses to grade 10 from Provincial instructors. (Provincial Attorney General Rostad has creatively described this trailer as "a $3 million training and employment program which would enable Band members to take advantage of the employment opportunities provided by both Reserve construction and other developments in the area". It's of course nothing of the kind and will accomplish no such thing. It's rather merely part of the ever expanding and largely irrelevant Provincial Government bureaucracy, unrelated to detailed Lubicon vocational training plans which in fact neither level of Canadian Government is prepared to support.

Basic reserve construction costs in all of the other indicated situations -- excepting only the so-called Woodland Cree whose Government selected and paid lawyer has reportedly "negotiated" a settlement agreement on their behalf very similar to the combined Federal and Provincial "offer" to the Lubicons -- have all been financed by the Federal government over time out of other funds. In other settlement monies in these other agreements are on top of or in addition to basic reserve construction costs.

It's therefore not valid to compare proposed Lubicon reserve set-up costs with the settlement monies provided by these other agreements. Excluding hypothetically possible comparison with the reserve construction costs incurred by these other aboriginal societies over the past 90 or more years, which would undoubtedly make the one-time cost of establishing a Lubicon reserve seem modest indeed, what one would have to compare would be the financial compensation provided by these other agreements with financial compensation offered the Lubicons. And in fact the Lubicons have simply not been offered any such financial compensation, either for the destruction of their traditional way of life or for the multi-billion dollar theft of their resource-rich traditional lands.

Proposed Lubicon settlement terms would provide 500 Lubicons with reserve lands of 50,560 acres or 79 square miles will full surface and sub-surface rights, plus 10,240 acres or 16 square miles with surface rights only, plus shared responsibility with the Provincial Government for wildlife management and environmental protection in the traditional Lubicon territory of approximately 2,560,000 acres or 4000 square miles. 50,560 acres for 500 people is about 101 acres per person with full surface and sub-surface rights; 10,240 acres with surface rights only is about an additional 20.5 acres of reserve land per person; shared wildlife management and environmental protection rights over approximately 2,560,000 acres is about 5,120 acres or 8 square miles per person. In addition the Lubicons are seeking financial compensation of $100 million in 1988 Canadian dollars or about $200,000 per person. (Financial compensation is of course by prior agreement not to be distributed to individuals but rather invested to generate continuing interest revenues for community purposes in an estimated amount after inflation of about $4.5 to $5 million annually.)

The James Bay Agreement provides 6,200 people with reserve lands of 1,370,240 acres or 2,141 square miles; plus exclusive hunting, trapping and fishing rights over an additional 16,640, 000 acres or 26,000 square miles; plus special wildlife harvesting and environmental protection rights over an additional 86,400,000 acres or 135,000 square miles. 1,370,240 acres for 6,200 people is about 221 acres of reserve land per person; 16,640,000 acres of land with exclusive hunting, trapping and fishing rights is about 2,684 acres or 4.2 square miles per person; 86,400,000 acres of land with special wildlife harvesting and environmental protection rights is about 13,935 acres or 22 square miles per person. The James Bay Agreement also provides financial compensation of $135 million in 1975 Canadian dollars, plus another $190 million in supplementary agreements related to the original agreement, or about $132,407 per person in 1988 Canadian dollars. In other words the James Bay Agreement also provides significantly more land rights but less financial compensation than proposed Lubicon settlement terms, illustrating the typically inverse relationship of land to money mentioned earlier.

The Inuvialuit Agreement provides 2,500 people with 2,718,080 acres or 4,247 square miles of reserve land with full surface and sub-surface rights, plus 19,273,600 acres or 30,115 square miles with surface and limited sub-surface rights, plus a "buffer zone" where no development can take place of an additional 494,080 acres or 772 square miles. 2,718,080 acres for 2,500 people is 1,087 acres or about 1.7 square miles per person; 19,273,600 acres for 2,500 people is 7,709 acres or about 12 square miles per person; 494,080 acres for 2500 people is about 198 acres per person. In addition the Inuvialuit Agreement provides financial compensation of $45 million in 1977 Canadian dollars, plus $10 million for an economic development fund, plus an additional $7.7 million for a social development fund -- all on top of basic community construction costs. The resulting financial compensation package of $62.7 million works out to about $52,946 per person in 1988 Canadian dollars. In other words the Inuvialuit Agreement provides many times more land than proposed Lubicon settlement terms but only about 25% of the financial compensation, illustrating once again the expected inverse relationship of land and money (1.7 square miles of land per person in the Inuvialuit Agreement, for example, would give 500 Lubicons 850 square miles full surface and sub-surface rights instead of only 79 square miles; 12 square miles of land per person with surface and limited sub-surface rights and surface rights would give 500 Lubicons surface and limited sub-surface ownership of 6,000 square miles of land instead of only surface ownership of 16 square miles; 198 acres of "buffer zone" per person would give 500 Lubicon Lubicons a significantly larger "buffer zone" (155 square miles) than is currently proposed for the entire Lubicon reserve of 95 square miles. (If both levels of Canadian Government would agree the Lubicons are prepared to exchange the approximately $74 million difference in financial compensation for the surface and sub-surface rights to an additional 771 square miles of their resource-rich traditional territory, from which literally billions of dollars in natural resources have already been extracted, plus surface and limited sub-surface ownership of another 6,000 square miles, plus a 155 square mile "buffer zone" where no development would be allowed. The Lubicons would of course be able to comfortably make such an exchange and still realistically plan for economic self-sufficiency both because of the then guaranteed huge royalties from proven sub-surface resources in the 850 square mile area surrounding Lubicon Lake, and also because they would no longer face the same financial requirement for intensive and costly development of the smaller 95 square mile reserve area to provide for their basic economic needs.)

The Dene/Metis Agreement-In-Principle provides 13,000 people with 2,496,000 acres or 3,900 square miles of land with full surface and sub-surface rights, plus 42,304,000 acres or 66,100 square miles of land with surface rights only, plus 247,040,000 acres or 386,000 square miles of land with wildlife management and environmental protection rights. 2,496,000 acres with full surface and sub-surface rights for 13,000 people is 196 acres per person (compared to 101 acres per person in the proposed Lubicon settlement); 42,304,000 acres per person with surface rights only for 13,000 people is 3,254 acres or over 5 square miles person (compared to a 20.5 acres per person in the proposed Lubicon settlement); 386,000 square miles with wildlife management and environmental rights for 13,000 people is about 30 square miles per person (compared to 8 square miles per person in the proposed Lubicon settlement). In addition the Dene/Metis Agreement-In-Principle provides 13,000 people with $500 million in financial compensation or about $38,461 per person (compared to $200,000 per person in proposed Lubicon settlement terms). (One can thus again clearly see the expected inverse relationship between the amount of financial compensation and the extent of land rights, and once again the Lubicons would be prepared to trade financial compensation for such significantly greater land rights. Using the Dene/Metis land formula the Lubicons would retain 150 square miles with full surface and sub-surface rights instead of 79 square miles, 2,550 square miles with surface rights only instead of 16 square miles, and 15,000 square miles of land with wildlife management and environmental rights instead of 4,000.)

The Yukon Agreement-In-Principle provides 6,500 people with 6,424, 960 acres or 10,039 square miles of land with full surface and sub-surface rights, plus 3,953,920 acres or 6,178 square miles of land with surface ownership only. 6,424,960 acres with full surface and sub-surface rights for 6,500 people is about 988 acres or 1.5 square miles per person (compared to 101 acres person in the proposed Lubicon settlement); 3,953,920 acres with surface ownership only for 6,500 people is about 608 acres per person (compared to 20.5 acres per person in the proposed Lubicon settlement). In addition the Yukon Agreement-In-Principle provides 6,500 people with $243 million in financial compensation or about $37,384 per person -- very close to the per capita amount provided by the Dene/Metis Agreement. (The significantly greater amount of land of course again more than makes up for the difference in financial compensation. Using the Yukon land formula the 500 Lubicons would retain 772 square miles of land with full surface and sub-surface rights instead of 79 square miles, and 475 square miles with surface rights only instead of 16 square miles.)

The Inuit or TFN Agreement-In-Principle provides 17,000 people with 8,896,000 acres or 13,900 square miles of land with full surface and sub-surface rights, plus another 86,519,860 acres or 135,187 square miles of land with surface rights only. 8,896,000 acres with full surface and sub-surface rights for 17,000 people is about 523 acres per person (compared to 101 acres person in the proposed Lubicon settlement); 86,519,860 acres with surface rights only for 17,000 people is 5,089 acres per person or about 8 square miles per person (compared to 20.5 acres per person in the proposed Lubicon settlement). In addition the Inuit or TFN Agreement-In-Principle provides 17,000 people with $580 million in financial compensation or about $34,118 per person. (The lesser amount of financial compensation is thus again made up by significantly greater land rights. Under the Inuit land formula 500 Lubicons would retain 409 square miles of land with full surface and sub-surface rights instead of 79 square miles, and 4,000 square miles of surface ownership only instead of 16 square miles.)

The Fort Chip-Cree settlement -- largely negotiated on behalf of the Fort Chip-Cree people by the same lawyer who negotiated the so-called Woodland Cree Agreement-In-Principle -- is perhaps the most difficult to compare with any other agreement. So as to not too badly distort the terms of that agreement, a brief history of how those terms came about is in order.

The Fort Chip-Cree people signed Treaty 8 in 1899 but didn't end up with the 128 acres of reserve land per person specified by that Treaty. In more recent times negotiations therefore ensued between the Canadian Federal Government and the Fort Chip-Cree to try and resolve the long-standing "treaty land entitlement" of the Fort Chip-Cree. (Under the Canadian Constitution only the Federal Government is empowered to negotiate a settlement of Indian land rights. The traditional of the Provincial Government in this process has by design always been merely to provide the Federal Government with the land needed by the Federal Government to settle outstanding Indian land rights.)

Reserve land entitlement under Treaty 8 has historically been calculated on the basis of population at the time that reserve land was first surveyed. In 1973 a reserve land entitlement of 98,000 acres based on the population at that time was negotiated and agreed between the Federal Government and the Fort Chip-Cree. However at the last moment the Alberta Provincial Government refused to cooperate with the agreement and indicated that it would provide land for a reserve only on the basis of the much smaller Fort Chip-Cree population known to exist at Treaty signing time in 1899. Provincial Government refusal to honour the 1973 agreement blocked settlement and led to further discussions.

Nearly 10 years later the population cut-off point agreed between the Fort Chip-Cree and the Federal Government for purposes of calculation reserve land entitlement under Treaty 8 was the 1982 population of 1,000 people. Under the Treaty 8 formula of 128 acres per person 1,000 people were "entitled" to a reserve of 128,000 acres or 200 square miles. However, in spite of the fact that population for purposes of determining treaty land entitlement had always been determined solely by the Federal Government and the involved aboriginal society, the Provincial Government again refused to transfer more than 24,000 acres or about 38 square miles based on the known Fort Chip-Cree population at Treaty signing time of under 200 people.

Faced with persistent Provincial Government refusal to transfer agreed upon treaty entitlement land, and unwilling to exercise the Federal Government's Constitutional responsibility and authority on behalf of aboriginal people, Federal officials sought to induce the Fort Chip-Cree to accept the 24,000 acres which the Province was willing to transfer by offering the Fort Chip-Cree people an additional 1,000 acres in Wood Buffalo National Park; plus $24 million in compensation supposedly for programs, benefits and services to which the Fort Chip-Cree were "entitled" under treaty but hadn't received from the Federal Government; plus some supposedly "special hunting, trapping and fishing rights". (The supposedly "special hunting, trapping and fishing rights" were in fact rights historically enjoyed by the Fort Chip Cree people which Federal officials were "offering" to not take away.)

The Provincial Government then complicated negotiations further by "offering" to purchase 13,000 of the 24,000 acres for $200 per acre and the Fort Chip-Cree people inexplicably agreed -- reportedly on the advise of a second lawyer (also since involved with the Woodland Cree) who reportedly told the Fort Chip-Cree that their only choice was to accept the Government offer or forget ever achieving a settlement of their long outstanding treaty land entitlement rights. Added to the $24 million offered by the Federal Government this $200 per acre for 13,000 acres or $2.6 million produced the $26.6 million total which was ultimately included in the Fort Chip-Cree settlement.

After agreement on the basic package of 12,000 acres and $26.6 million had been achieved at the technical level, and in a manoeuvre reminiscent of Federal negotiators tabling in front of Provincial negotiators the "take-it-or-leave-it" offer to the Lubicons known in advance to be unacceptable, Federal politicians arbitrarily and unilaterally reduced the Federal Government's proffered $24 million to $9 million. Predictably concerned that this move by the Federal Government might break a deal which served Provincial Government interest very well; namely only having to transfer 17 square miles of reserve land and $2.6 million for a people whose then population of 1,200 properly entitled them under treaty to a reserve of 240 square miles, the Provincial Government leaped into the breach and made up the 15 million dollar difference. The resulting package was then hastily reconceptualized as a straight "cash for land" deal, with the $17.6 million directly from the Province being represented as partial payment for any reserve land entitlement over the 12,000 acres, and the remaining $9 million from the Federal Government being represented as full and final payment of behalf of the Province supposedly to compensate the Province for capital infrastructure built with Provincial funds on lands which were now being transferred from Provincial to Federal jurisdiction for purposes of establishing a Fort Chip-Cree reserve.

In the end the Fort Chip-Cree Agreement thus provided 1,200 people with 12,280 acres or about 19 square miles with full surface and sub-surface rights, plus 11,072,000 acres or 17,300 square miles with exclusive hunting, trapping and fishing rights. (The exclusive hunting, trapping and fishing rights are coincidentally located in Wood Buffalo National Park currently being clear-cut by Daishowa). 12,280 acres for 1,200 people is 10.3 acres of reserve land per person; 11,072,000 acres of land with exclusive hunting, trapping and fishing rights (but clearly not exclusive logging rights) is 9,227 acres or 14.5 square miles per person. In addition the Fort Chip-Cree Agreement provides $26.6 million dollars over and above reserve construction costs or $22,166 per person. How best to characterize and/or compare the terms of the Fort Chip-Cree settlement with any of the other agreements isn't clear. Suffice it to say that the Fort Chip-Cree Agreement and the so-called Woodland Cree Agreement-In-Principle are the two agreements which simply aren't comparable to any of the other agreements or to proposed Lubicon settlement terms.

The Sturgeon Lake Agreement has been deliberately misrepresented by Provincial Government negotiators as providing 16,207 acres and $5.575 million in financial compensation for 1,166 people. It in fact provides 16,207 acres and $6.053 million (including $386,000 in legal and negotiating fees) for between 21 and 34 people. (1",166 was reportedly the total Sturgeon Lake population in December of 1988; however the Sturgeon Lake Agreement was not made on the basis of the total Sturgeon Lake population in December of 1988, most of whom had already been taken into account for reserve land purposes, but on the basis of a much smaller number who'd been missed.)

Negotiations were for some time over the number of people who'd been missed until -- illustrating the earlier mentioned effect of differing circumstances upon agreements achieved -- both levels of Canadian Government concluded that they needed some settlements in order to counter adverse publicity being generated by the increasingly well known Lubicon struggle. At that point the Sturgeon Lake people were insisting that 34 people had been missed, Federal officials only agreed on 32 and Provincial officials only agreed on 21.

Population differences were consequently set aside and a deal made, with the Sturgeon Lake people in the words of on Provincial negotiator "basically trading less land with valuable sub-surface resources for a greater amount of valuable land with agricultural potential". The more land actually provided by the Agreement is 477 to 772 acres per person with full surface and sub-surface rights, depending upon whether one uses the 21 people agreed by

Provincial officials, the 34 claimed by the Sturgeon Lake people or some number in between. Similarly financial compensation provided by the Agreement -- on top of already provided reserve construction costs -- is between $178,030 per person for 34 people and $288,238 per person for 21 people. (Were 500 Lubicons to receive reserve land and financial compensation on the same per capita basis they'd receive between 373 and 603 square miles of reserve land with full surface and sub-surface rights instead of 79 square miles, and financial compensation of between $89 and $144 million instead of the proposed $100 million.

The Whitefish Lake Agreement has also been deliberately misrepresented by Provincial Government negotiators as providing 5,500 acres and $19.166 million in financial compensation for 1,081 people. It in fact provides 5,832 acres and $19.666 million ( including $500,000 in legal and negotiating costs) for 47 people. (1,081 was reportedly the total Whitefish Lake population in 1988; however, the Whitefish Lake Agreement was not made on the basis of the total Whitefish Lake Population in 1988 but on the basis of 47 "new adherents" -- people who were "entitled" to be on the Whitefish membership list at the time Whitefish reserve lands were first surveyed in 1908 but who for whatever reasons weren't added to the Whitefish Lake membership list until later.)

Canadian Government motivation for settling with Whitefish Lake was clearly the same as at Sturgeon Lake but the mix of land and money factors was varied, according to a provincial Government negotiator, "to basically exchange more valuable land with known oil resources for a combination of money and less valuable land without oil." What kind of overall deal that turned out to be for the Whitefish Lake people is questionable but the numbers still aren't out of line with other contemporary agreements or proposed Lubicon settlement terms. 5,832 acres with full surface and subsurface rights for 47 people is 124 acres per person (compared to 101 acres in the proposed Lubicon settlement); $19.666 million for 47 people on top of already covered reserve construction costs is $418,425 per person (compared to $200,000 per person in the proposed Lubicon settlement). (Were 500 Lubicons to receive land and financial compensation on the same basis they'd receive about 97 square miles of land with full surface and sub-surface rights instead of 79 square miles, plus over $209 million in financial compensation on top of reserve construction costs instead of the proposed $100,000 million.)

Less is publicly known about the so-called Woodland Cree Agreement-In -Principle than about any of these other contemporary agreements. What is known suggests that it is closely modeled after the unacceptable "take-it-or-leave-it" offer to the Lubicons, which of course only provides inadequate funding for basic reserve construction. If so the so-called Woodland Cree Agreement-In-Principle would not compare to any of these other contemporary settlement agreements.

Enclosed for your information is a copy of a form letter being sent concerned citizens by Alberta Provincial Attorney General Ken Rostad in which Mr. Rostad makes the demonstrably false claim that proposed Lubicon settlement terms have a dollar value "which on a per capita basis very substantially exceeds other contemporary settlements both in Alberta and elsewhere in Canada", a copy of a transcript from the House of Commons Question Period during which Federal Indian Affairs Minister Tom Siddon makes the demonstrably false claim that "the Lubicon demand is vastly in excess of the settlement which has been achieved with most other native communities in Canada", and copies of three newspaper articles related to Mr. Siddon's house of Common remarks.

Norm Ovenden's Edmonton Journal article "Lubicon Band demands excessive, Siddon says" October 25, 1990

Amy Santoro's Windspeaker article "Siddon uninformed, says Lennarson", Nov 9, 1990