800% rent increase sparks tension with Musqueam Nation

Musqueam Indian Band wants to jack up rents eightfold for long-term leaseholders who’ve made a home on a subdivision of the reserve, one surrounded by mansions of Vancouver’s skyrocketing West Side that have themselves seen a 400 per cent spike in property values.

Tensions over the impending 20-year lease renewals on June 8 have sparked a threat of litigation and a heated series of meetings as the band re-negotiates with non-members who live on the reserve.

But some residents’ monthly payments to the band are in fact proposed to rise even more than eight times, reaching nearly $10,000 a month.

Some residents have expressed fear that they could be pushed out of their homes — and lose their investments — as a result of being caught by surprise by the sudden rent increase.

A spokesperson for Musqueam Indian Band declined a Windspeaker interview request, but noted that a “communications package is in the works” for media and that the First Nation’s leadership “just want to make sure they do their due diligence as the process unfolds.”

But in a confidential letter the nation sent to leaseholders, obtained by Windspeaker, the band said that with a Supreme Court of Canada case allowing a rent increase based on six per cent of the land’s value — and setting out rules for calculating leasehold values — the current increase simply brings the land up to the level of adjacent Vancouver’s rising prices.

At issue now, with a June 8 deadline to determine increases, is Musqueam nation’s argument that the Supreme Court of Canada’s 1995 ruling — that reserve lands should be valued only half as much as off-reserve due to uncertainty over how to assess land values, the inability of leaseholders to vote in band elections, a lack of City of Vancouver services, and “unrest on the Reserve” — no longer applies because the concerns have since been resolved.

“In the view of the Band, a discount for ‘Indian reserve features’ should no longer be made as the relevant facts have changed since 1995,” the band’s letter stated.

As part of economic development initiatives of the First Nation, Musqueam band constructed an estimated 219 homes on lands leased for a century to the reserve 50 years ago by the federal government. Out of those houses, most pre-paid the leases up-front, meaning there was no risk of a monthly increase. But for 75 of the residents, the leases are renegotiated every 20 years.

In the 1990s, those leaseholders upset with a major rent increase at that time took the band to court, spending more than $1 million in the legal battle.

For Musqueam band member Cecilia Point, although the 1990s lawsuit by disgruntled leaseholders was well-known in the community, the recent increase proposal is news to her and many others on the reserve.

“They never told us about that … nothing verbal or written from our council,” she said. “My guess would be this is straight-up negotiations.

“The leases are still really low if you compare them to what’d you’d pay for a leasehold in the City of Vancouver. Here they’ve always been low. I know it was a big-sticker shock to people (but) my guess is they’re trying to stay current with the times.”

In the confidential letter to leaseholders, the Musqueam stated that they’re open to negotiations on the disputed amounts — and even considered putting the issue of turning them all into pay-up-front leases to a referendum vote amongst band membership.

“The leases precluded prepaid leases and the only way to change the leases would be a full referendum vote of the Musqueam membership,” the letter states. “The Band Council had considered a referendum but concluded that such a vote would not be successful. Accordingly the Band decided to obtain an appraisal to provide a value for rents based on the existing terms of the leases as interpreted by the Supreme Court of Canada.”

The renters are organized under the umbrella of the Musqueam Park Leaseholders Association (MPLA), but due to ongoing negotiations are unable to speak to the media due to signing a confidentiality agreement with the Musqueam Indian Band, according to a letter from the MPLA, also obtained by Windspeaker.

The association held an open house for leaseholders on March 31 in advance of the band’s April 8 notices, and another community meeting was held on April 15 to discuss the impending deadline.

“The MPLA negotiating committee will continue to put forward a fair alternative position,” the group’s letter stated, adding that they had raised money to recruit experts including legal advice and property appraisers in order to put forward their counter-proposal on rent increases.

For Point, a prepaid, long-term lease makes a lot of sense for everyone. She said developments by Tsleil-Waututh Nation have included 100-year leases that residents “pay up front so you don’t have a sticker shock. Most people would prefer that.”