Deputy Chief Councillor Cyril Bennett-Nabess speaks during a ceremony before the introduction of provincial legislation to advance the ratification of a treaty with the Kitselas First Nation, at the B.C. Legislature in Victoria on April 15 alongside Premier David Eby, left, and Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation Spencer Chandra Herbert.Wolfgang Depner/The Canadian Press
The British Columbia government unveiled new treaties with two First Nations in April – rare events in a province where land claims are mostly unresolved.
Proposed legislation is set to be passed by the end of May to implement treaties with the K’ómoks First Nation on Vancouver Island, and the Kitselas from B.C.’s northwest. If ratified by the federal parliament, they will be the first treaties settled in B.C. in a decade. (Another recent treaty, with the Kitsumkalum First Nation, was ratified by the nation late last year but the province has not yet introduced enabling legislation.)
These new treaties were supposed to be a high point in reconciliation in B.C., and a turning point after months of conflict between the Eby government and First Nations’ leadership over setbacks in Indigenous rights law. Instead, they have proven to be divisive and will test the NDP government’s ability to pass legislation.
Until this year, the modern treaty process adopted in the province in 1992 has produced just three treaties that have come into effect. It’s a glacial pace that has prompted some First Nations to abandon the treaty table to look to the courts for a declaration of their Aboriginal rights and title.
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Modern treaties in B.C. are negotiated between the province, Canada and First Nations. They set out jurisdiction over lands, waters and resources, and typically include land transfers and cash settlements.
B.C. Premier David Eby celebrated the legislation that will give formal provincial approval to the treaties with the Kitselas and the K’ómoks, saying they will create “opportunity, jobs, prosperity, and certainty for our beautiful province.”
But certainty – which in B.C. means knowing who governs any particular piece of land – is not assured. Both treaties are being challenged by neighbouring First Nations who have overlapping and unresolved land claims.
With the B.C. NDP government’s fragile majority, there is no assurance that the provincial legislature will ratify these new treaties. Mr. Eby has already backed down on planned amendments to reconciliation legislation this spring because he could not rally enough votes for those contentious changes.
Neither the opposition Conservatives, nor the Greens, have decided if they will vote in favour of the treaties, after hearing complaints about competing claims.
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The Wei Wai Kum First Nation have protested at the B.C. Legislature, saying the K’ómoks treaty will take away 80 per cent of their traditional territories. At their side, the Nine Allied Tribes, the Lax Kw’alaams and the Haisla Nation dispute the scope of the Kitselas treaty.
The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, or UBCIC, is calling on the provincial government to delay passage of legislation to enable the treaties until these territorial conflicts are resolved.
“Advancing treaty legislation with unresolved boundary issues is irresponsible and will be challenged,” said Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the UBCIC, in a statement.
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the UBCIC, in Vancouver in 2020.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
There is nothing new in these kinds of conflicts. Overlapping claims have marked every modern-day treaty in the province, and B.C. treaty chief commissioner George Abbott said ratification is not the end of the line: There are still avenues to resolve overlapping claims in the future.
“I personally hope that there is no delay in the treaties moving through the legislature,” he said in an interview. “Every treaty that has been debated in the legislature has had First Nations who were not at that point satisfied with the accommodation measures that were put in place around overlap and shared territory issues.”
Mr. Abbott said the treaty commission supports First Nations to resolve their own conflicts regarding overlapping territories, but he hopes to find ways to better facilitate conflict resolution.
“What we’ve done to date leaves too many disputes at the stairs of the legislature,” he said, referring to the recent protests.
B.C. has a particular challenge with overlapping claims because when the province joined Confederation in 1871, it rejected treaty-making. It took 120 years for the province to abandon that stance.
“In that interval, the provincial population has grown from just over 8,000 white settlers to now a population of over five million,” Mr. Abbott noted. “And there’s all manner of infrastructure and development in place now that makes the negotiation of treaties a more complex matter than it would have been back in 1871.”
The Wei Wai Kum are threatening legal action to block the K’ómoks treaty. “We want to see treaties succeed,” said Chief Councillor Chris Roberts. But, he added, “K’ómoks cannot magically draw a line on a map, erase history and claim our territory. The governments should not let this happen, and our chiefs, council and members will not allow it to happen.”
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Nicole Rempel, Chief Councillor of the K’ómoks, said her community is willing to continue talking with the Wei Wai Kum, but still wants to move forward with its treaty now. “Self-determination and getting out from the racist and patriarchal Indian Act is, to my understanding, a goal of most First Nations across Canada,” she said. The treaty will give her community co-management over land and resources with the province.
“Our focus is on ensuring our K’ómoks people, and our region collectively in the Comox Valley, have a stable and sustainable future. And that’s really what this treaty is about.”
Robert Phillips, a member of the political executive of the First Nations Summit in B.C., said his organization is working to help sort out settlements about overlapping claims. But he noted that conflict over shared Indigenous territories in what is now British Columbia didn’t start with the treaty process.
“It is something that has been going on for thousands of years,” he said. Disputes have been resolved through protocols – and sometimes even wars. He said that shouldn’t be enough to disrupt the settlement of treaties.
“We are now in a situation where, finally, we’re getting into treaties, and I just hope that politics doesn’t get in the way of that happening.”