The Tsawwassen First Nation, who call the rich Fraser River Delta area home, will receive land, cash and fishing rights in a deal being hailed as the largest urban treaty in B.C. history.
The treaty includes 724 hectares of land, about $34.5 million in cash and program startup funds and fish deals covering commercial and ceremonial catches of
The treaty is the second deal in recent months after almost 15 years of slow-moving and costly talks - almost $1 billion spent so far - between aboriginals and the B.C. and federal governments.
The federal and B.C. auditors general issued a joint report this month critical of the slow and costly talks, suggesting the three parties review the current process.
A treaty with the
Less than 20 of
B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell's Liberal government, originally cool to the concept of negotiating land-claims deals with aboriginals, recently embraced treaties as a way to achieve land ownership certainty for aboriginals and investors and a means to improving the health, education and social conditions of aboriginals.
The federal government appears to support negotiating settlements as opposed to lengthy, costly and divisive court battles.
The 350 members of the Tsawwassen First Nation are a Coast Salish people whose tribal name means "the land facing the sea."
They are located on the southern side of
The federal, B.C. and Tsawwassen governments initialled the final treaty agreement on the Tsawwassen reserve on Friday. The deal has been part of ongoing negotiations since about 1993.
Tsawwassen Chief Kim Baird said the treaty abolishes the Indian Act through self-government, not assimilation.
"It gives us the tolls to build a healthy community and the opportunity to participate fully in the Canadian economy."
The treaty will not become final until it is ratified in a Tsawwassen band vote expected in July and passed in the House of Commons and the B.C. legislature.
The B.C. government will contribute 372 hectares of Crown land to the Tsawwassen First Nation. Of the 372 hectares, the government will remove 207 hectares of land from within the Agricultural Land Reserve.
ALR lands are designated for farm use and generally are protected from development, but there have been other instances where agricultural land has been removed from the protected reserve.
The Tsawwassen First Nation has the option of purchasing another 278 hectares of land that is currently occupied by farm and settler families in the area.
The so-called Brunswick Point families had their properties expropriated by the B.C. government in the late 1960s to make room for a failed superport project at Roberts Bank.
The treaty gives the Tsawwassen First Nation first right of refusal if the lands are sold.
Several Brunswick Point families launched a civil suit last September claiming the first right of refusal option lowers the true value of the land.
The Tsawwassen First Nation will agree to give up its tax-exempt status within a dozen year of ratifying the treaty. Band members will starting paying the GST and provincial sales tax in eight years and income taxes in 12 years.
But a deal negotiated outside of the treaty includes two tax-sharing agreements with the B.C. government.
The B.C. government and Tsawwassen First Nation will share 50 per cent of income taxes and sales taxes collected from First Nation members once their tax-exempt status is dropped.
The B.C. government will also share 100 per cent of real property taxes collected on Tsawwassen lands with the First Nation.
The fish deal includes allotments for the cultural uses of salmon taken from the
The cultural use agreement allows the First Nation to harvest 15,226
The commercial harvest agreement grants the Tsawwassen access to less than one per cent of the total available commercial catch of
The side deal also allows Tsawwassen to harvest 3.2 per cent of the available commercial catch of chum salmon. That number was 9,106 fish last season.