Cane, Jacqueline --- "The British Columbia Treaty Commission: Sechelt Agreement - in - Principle Reached" [1999] IndigLawB 57; (1999) 4(22) Indigenous Law Bulletin 16
The British Columbia Treaty Commission:
Sechelt Agreement-in-Principle Reached
by Jacqueline Cane
The Sechelt Indian band are a largely urban group who live on British Columbia’s Sunshine coast 50 kms northwest of Vancouver. On 16 April 1999, they signed an agreement-in-principal with the Governments of British Columbia (BC) and Canada, the first to come our of the five-year-od British Columbia Treaty Commission (BCTC) process.
The BCTC is an impartial body, responsible for facilitating tripartite treaty negotiations (regional agreements dealing with both land and political rights) in the province of BC between First Nations Indians and the Provincial and Federal Governments. It arose as a result of a 1991 joint task force recommendation that a modern treaty process should exist to deal with the many outstanding Aboriginal land claims in BC.
As in Australia, there were virtually no treaties signed in BC during its initial colonisation. The issue of Aboriginal title has been pressing for Indians there, who have asserted title and demanded to negotiate with governments to settle the issue for over 150 years. Although the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Calder [1] in 1973 resulted in the Federal Government shifting towards the negotiation of outstanding land claims, only in 1990 did the issue become so pressing for the Provincial Government that it too became involved in the process. In that year, as Indian blockaders hindered the development of land and made a serious impact on investment in the province, the Canadian Supreme Court handed down its decision in Sparrow.[2] Sparrow was the first authoritative interpretation by the courts of section 35 of the Constitution Act 1982, in which they affirmed the constitutional rights of Aboriginal peoples. It was this decision that convinced the BC government that the game was up.
While the BCTC is being scrutinized domestically for its ability to enhance the claims process by umpiring as well as providing resources and guidance to parties, 70% of First Nations in BC have voluntarily joined the process. Presently, the bulk of negotiations are in the middle stage: working out the Agreement in Principle (the major basis of the treaty).
The Sechelt Agreement in Principle is worthy of note as a ‘first’ in other respects. It represents the first modern indigenous land-claim treaty to apply to land in an urban area of BC. Over that land, there will initially be co-management of forestry and gravel quarries between the BC government and the Sechelt, with a gradual phase-in of total Sechelt control. On the 2000 hectares of land covered by the treaty (old reserve land and new settlement land), the Sechelt will own all surface and subsurface resources. Also, $5 million in economic development assistance (fishery, forestry, business) is forthcoming - mostly from the Federal Government, in exchange for the Sechelt concession of their tax-exempt status and for the ‘full and final’ settlement by the treaty of all Aboriginal title and rights to land and its resources. Sechelt Chief Garry Feschuk heralds the agreement as furthering the band’s primary aim of self-sufficiency and ending reliance on government money.
The BCTC is worthy of study in Australia as indicating a possible model for the facilitated resolution of Australian indigenous land claims and land use agreements. Since it is a regional process, it has been suited to address the particular BC issues surrounding Aboriginal title (ie no prior treaties exist in BC and title remains largely unextinguished), self-government (many BC Indian bands possess delegated municipal-style government powers under the Indian Act and wish to be self-determining), economic development (largely resource-based) and conservation in the region.
For more information on the Agreement-in-Principle or the BCTC contact:
Federal Treaty Office site at www.inac.gc.ca/news/jan99
BC Aboriginal Affairs Office at www.aaf.gov.bc.ca/aaf
British Columbia Treaty Commission at www.bctreaty.net
Jacqueline Cane is an undergraduate law student at the University of Calgary and visited Macquarrie University in Sydney for a semester in 1999.
[1] Calder v Attorney-General of British Columbia (1990) 70 DLR (4th) 385. This case was brought by the Nisga’a Indians of coastal BC.
[2] R v Sparrow (1990) 70 DLR (4th) 385.