Agreement demands a meeting of minds over time

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The Tsawwassen First Nation signed an agreement-in-principle with federal and provincial government representatives on March 15, opening the door for it to become a signatory to the first urban treaty in the Lower Mainland.

"It's one step toward a final agreement, which will be a treaty for my community, and it outlines the main elements of land, cash, governance and resources, and is still flexible to allow for negotiations to continue by final agreement.

"So, it's an important step, but it's a step still the same," said Tsawwassen Chief Kim Baird.

"It's the first time since I've been involved in negotiations, which has been since the beginning, that I've seen all three parties wanting to reach agreement."

She added that about 70 per cent of Tsawwassen members participated in the vote and more than 70 per cent of those who voted endorsed the agreement.

Tsawwassen First Nation, a 328 member Coast Salish community, entered the treaty process in 1993. Their current 290 hectare (717 acre) reserve, is situated at Roberts Bank in Delta, on the southern end of the Strait of Georgia near the American border

If negotiations proceed to the final agreement, the band will gain about 427 hectares (1,055 acres) of provincial Crown land in addition to its current reserve. A cash component of "up to $14.2 million" is on the table.

"It's made up of $10.1 million capital transfer; a $100,000 fund for forest resources; $1 million for economic development purposes; up to $1 million for cultural purposes; up to $1 million for a fisheries fund; and $1 million for commercial fishing capacity," said Baird.

Governance means "identifying law-making authorities we have, to manage our own affairs and institutions, and those arrangements are yet to be negotiated. So land management might be an example of something we'll have greater certainty around our ability to make laws in, or education-some aspects of it-those sorts of things.

"We have to negotiate whether they'll be in the treaty, meaning they're constitutionally protected, or in an outside agreement."

Baird added that because they live in the Lower Mainland there is a lot of attention being paid to the state of negotiations. Even though no privately held land is on the table, non-Native people are concerned how the issues could affect them.

"There's a lot more pressures on the resources and land base because of urban growth and that sort of thing. We had to make sure the agreement in principle is flexible enough that we can work through some of the issues in a creative and flexible way. ... It's a lot of politically sensitive issues here, for all parties," the chief said.

She said the only natural resource left in Tsawwassen territory is the salmon fishery. The agreement in principle differentiates between domestic allocation, which would be constitutionally protected, and an economic allocation that would be outside of the treaty.

"But how the mechanics of that work are yet to be determined," said Chief Kim Baird.

"Part of the reason we didn't go for the harvest agreement like some of the other agreement in principles have is because we're at the heart of the issues here. The coalition's headquarters is in our traditional territory ... it's a very volatile issue here.

"So we've left that purposely open to try to again come up with some solutions that will meet all three parties' interest, but we've made it very clear that unless it's resolved to our satisfaction, all bets are off."

Baird said if they get to the final agreement stage, currently undefined Aboriginal rights and title will become defined, and therefore "potentially more limited in scope than are undefined rights and title."

She said treaty lands would no longer be Indian reserve, therefore "tax exemption would no longer apply. So there's the phase-out of tax exemptions. That's a huge critical issue, and we have to examine by final agreement whether there's a worthwhile tde-off here or not.

"So while we're negotiating final agreement negotiations, we have a lot of internal work to do to look at the value of this agreement in principle to see what we can do with it to ensure that our ultimate objective of improving Tsawwassen First Nation members' quality of life (is met)."

One other controversial issue is whether the lands will remain within the agricultural land reserve or not.

"We have a process identified in the agreement in principal to see whether we can get some removed."

Under provincial legislation, Baird explained, there is an agricultural lands commission that operates arm's length from the government. It manages the agricultural land reserve (ALR), which is land that has very specific and highly regulated uses for farming.

"All the lands that we are accquiring currently are provincial agricultural lands within the ALR. Tsawwassen's argument has been that we need flexibility to do what we want on these lands, because we're in the Lower Mainland-we don't have the volume of land that a more remote First Nation may have access to. So how we're able to use the land becomes pretty important. That's one thing that the public has no support of, for removing farmlands generally from the ALR ... that's another politically sensitive issue that we have to work our way through."

Baird said that while she understands why people want to keep remaining agricultural land in production, she has observed that agricultural land outside the reserve has been converted to other uses. She maintains the First Nation can't be solely responsible for preserving an agricultural land base, especially since it has "so many needs outside of farming."

She added, "We have very, very little land for community purposes." Currently it is "20 acres or less for economic development and housing."

She also pointed out their reserve contains a lot of "CP land" held by individuals that "puts a lot of pressure on the land base." She's referring ocertificate of possession land, which normally entitles the certificate holder to say how land with that designation will be used.

Despite all the issues confronting them, Baird is fairly optimistic. If things proceed smoothly, she said, it could take a year to finalize negotiations in addition to the time needed for community and public consultation. On the other hand, if things don't go smoothly, negotiations could take two more years.

Eighty per cent of the money to conduct the negotiations is borrowed, which is another reason to keep things moving along, she said. "I'm hoping that's an item for negotiation. I've been raising that at our table, about the repayment of the loans."

They have hired consultants to help, but no lawyers or economists at this stage.

"Whenever possible, I have tried to incorporate capacity building for members of our community, so we have a core treaty team ensuring that we always have Tsawwassen people at the negotiations, and it is challenging with a small community to find the people with the right skills and education level and things. But it is so important to always try and ensure that people are gaining expertise and experience."