28 September 2005
Treaty Commission Predicts Progress
The BC Treaty Commission is predicting "major breakthroughs" within months in some of the
negotiations under way with 57 native bands in the province.
But one of the commissioners, Jack Weisgerber, said yesterday that the treaty process in British Columbia is still facing big
challenges that have stalled talks at some tables, despite the provincial government's recent commitment to a new relationship with
aboriginal communities.
"There are still some big issues to be concluded, but the encouraging part is that the parties have been able to narrow it down to
a relatively small number," Mr. Weisgerber said.
The contentious issues are all significant, involving fisheries, governance, fiscal transfers and questions about compensation for
privately owned land. "That's a tough issue," Mr. Weisgerber said, speaking about private land that native communities feel
was unfairly taken from them.
Some aboriginal groups want the federal and provincial governments to address the issue even though private land has long been
considered non-negotiable.
"As a general rule, all of the parties are prepared to accept the premise that private lands are not on the table, other than
those put forward in a willing seller context," Mr. Weisgerber said.
But Robert Morales, chief negotiator of the Hul'qumi'num Treaty Group in the Cowichan Valley area on Vancouver Island, said that can't
stand. "The most difficult issue is the private-land issue," he said.
"In our case the Hul'qumi'num [claim] is for about 300,000 hectares, and about 85 percent of that is privately held. If you take
it off the table for expropriation, off the table for co-management, off the table for revenue sharing and off the table
for compensation, basically there's not much left to negotiate."
Mr. Morales said the Hul'qumi'num are pushing officials for a new approach. "Restitution says that if the state confiscates
property then they have an obligation to either return it, or replace it with property of equal value and size, or compensate,"
Mr. Morales said.
"Now those are the options. We're saying, okay, government of Canada, you have an obligation here, " Mr. Morales said.
He said the Hul'qumi'num lost control of most of their lands in the 1800s when government transferred huge amounts of property to
industrialist Robert Dunsmuir to encourage construction of the E&N Railway from Esquimalt, near Victoria, to the coal fields in
Duncan to the north. Forest companies later acquired those lands.
"You can't just confiscate land and say there is no remedy... That's bullying," Mr. Morales said.
He said B.C.'s recent commitment to a new relationship with native bands is encouraging, but he has yet to see proof of change.
"The treaty table is where we want to see the new relationship begin to materialize," he said.
This past spring, Premier Gordon Campbell said B.C. would forge new relations with natives based on "reconciliation, recognition
and respect of aboriginal rights."
Mr. Weisgerber said first nations are waiting to see what the new relationship means at the treaty table, but optimism is growing that
major settlements will soon be made.
The BC Treaty Commission's annual report, released yesterday, did not indicate where the breakthroughs might occur. It listed six
native groups in the fifth stage of a six-step settlement process, with another 41 in stage four.
Some snapshots of negotiations from the report:
The Maa-nulth First Nations, on central Vancouver Island, were making rapid progress through stage five until the sudden
death of leader George Watts in June. Negotiations are resuming this fall but are complicated because of a court action in which native
groups are seeking recognition of an aboriginal right to fish commercially.
The Tswawwassen First Nation, on the Fraser River delta, is engaged in stage-five talks, but major stumbling blocks
remain, including issues involving land, resources, tax and governance.
The Sliammon First Nation, on the Sunshine Coast, is engaged in "intensive" stage-five negotiations but
forestry, governance and fiscal relations are still being debated.
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