By Tom Fletcher
Dec 27 2006
Surrey Leader [Link]

At the beginning of 2006, this column predicted that B.C.’s most important story of the year would be the new relationship with aboriginal people.

At least I got one thing right in the past 12 months.

The obvious development was a string of final treaty agreements reached with aboriginal communities at Prince George, Tsawwassen and on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Not so obvious were two “specific claims” settlements, for the, er, borrowed legislature land and most recently with the Kwadacha and Tsay Keh Dene for the flooding of their territory by the W.A.C. Bennett dam.

The pressure for results on treaties was brought home by recent reports from both the federal and B.C. auditors general: 13 years and hundreds of millions of dollars ago, Ottawa figured the last treaty-less areas of Canada would be settled by 2000. Up to this year, there was still nothing to show for it but upbeat annual reports from treaty commissioners, and a single deal pushed through outside the treaty framework.

So why did these two lawsuits jump ahead of nearly 50 stalled treaty negotiations? The legislature land certainly has a symbolic significance, and some might see the dam settlement offer as a prelude to another northern dam project.

But there’s another compelling reason to make peace with the remote Kwadacha and Tsay Keh Dene, which few in the southern part of the province had heard of until now.

A new joint federal-provincial approval process for mines is being tested, and poised for a decision after two years of study is the Kemess North copper and gold mine expansion in north-central B.C. Kemess South, worth 500 jobs and $150 million in local economic activity, will be exhausted in 2008, and Prince George Mayor Colin Kinsley hopes the expansion will keep the mine and ore mill going until 2020.

The main opponents happen to be three remote native bands, including the Kwadacha and Tsay Keh Dene. A statement they issued Aug. 29 captures the flavour of their opposition.

“The three Tse Keh Nay Nations gathered in force and held a water ceremony to protect Duncan Lake. The lake, which the First Nations call ‘Amazay’ is situated 400 km northwest of Prince George. Northgate Minerals plans to build a 90-metre-high dam to flood the valley and turn the lake into a massive acid rock tailings pit to store contaminated waste from the proposed Kemess North mine.”

In its submissions to the federal-provincial environment panel, Northgate vows that it will relocate the fish from Duncan Lake and restore it to its natural state after Kemess North is mined out. It also has a plan B, using three smaller tailings ponds nearby. B.C. Mines Minister Bill Bennett is hoping that this joint environment panel will help overcome Ottawa’s reputation for stalling mining companies for years on end.

Chief John Allan French of the Takla First Nation, the third group opposing the mine expansion, says: “As a nation, we are not opposed to mining or economic development, but we have to remember what is important. Gold does not run through our blood. We are all made of water. We have pushed the boundaries too far to destroy life itself, water, as a means of getting cheaper gold.”

You can find hidden stories like this one in a lot of remote places in B.C. Not only are there old injustices, there are places where the existence of communities hangs by a thread.

In those places, industry and aboriginal tradition have to fit together somehow, or both can disappear.

Goodbye Indian Act

A reader in Quesnel questioned a recent column that described ongoing payments for social services as part of treaty settlements.

“If first nations want self-government and we give them all this money and land, why do we need a department of Indian Affairs?” he asks.

The short answer is, we don’t.

The phase-out of Indian Act tax exemptions is one reason why these treaties represent a historic development for B.C. For the first time, health and social service payments will be coming from aboriginal communities that also pay taxes into the system.

And as Tsawwassen Chief Kim Baird has noted, ratification of their treaty will mean an end to the communal reserve method of holding land. The band will own its land fee simple, and for them the Indian Act will cease to apply.

That is seen as enormously risky by some aboriginal people, but that and industry are the only way many of these communities can survive.

Prentice moving on?

Reports from Ottawa indicate that Prime Minister Stephen Harper will move Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice to Environment in preparation for a possible election forced by opposition parties in the new year. Liberal leader Stephane Dion is seen as strong on the issue, which has caught the public’s imagination at last.

Prentice’s performance in Indian Affairs shows why he’s a key part of Harper’s inner circle. He’s demonstrated the ability to walk into the lion’s den and calmly get things done.

From residential school claims, to education agreements to land settlements across the north and in B.C., Prentice has set about dismantling the Indian Act one piece at a time. His push for matrimonial property rights for aboriginal women may be as significant as any treaty in the quest for aboriginal equality.