Some nations still hold out hope for process

Page 9

Pacheedaht/Ditidaht and Snuneymuxw, the only Vancouver Island First Nations to receive formal treaty offers, continue to negotiate towards agreements-in-principle despite Sechelt's recent withdrawal from the process and decision to go to court. Sechelt's choice gives Ditidaht and Pacheedaht, which swiftly rejected a treaty offer last October, hope that new life will be breathed into the treaty process, said Jim Christakos, Ditidaht/Pacheedaht technical negotiator.

Sechelt sent a "very, very powerful signal to government things have got to change. That should give hope to everybody that things will change. I don't believe the government can permit things to degenerate to the point where everybody goes to court," he said.

"If you get 50 Sechelts, the economy of this province is ground to a halt. If you get four Sechelts, the economy of this province goes to hell, because everybody else will, at this point, turn to direct action. There is enough unity now among First Nations that it would take very little organization to orchestrate massive province-wide disruptions. That's what lies ahead for the government if things don't change," Christakos said.

"God help Canada and British Columbia if all First Nations are going to do that. Think of what that would do to the economy of this province. Sacrifice and poverty and these kind of problems are familiar territory to First Nations' people, but the rest of the population would be joining them if this kind of thing happen. So, it can't, and for that reason I'm optimistic governments will, in fact, respond in a manner that will enable viable, workable, rational treaties to be negotiated," said Christakos in an interview with Raven's Eye.

Snuneymuxw senior negotiator Michael Rodger said, based on what they heard coming out of Sechelt, he's concerned.

"We're hopeful we'll be able to get through this logjam, but the proof will definitely be in the pudding. If we're able to make agreements, that will be based on the efforts of an awful lot of people who are involved in this process. I believe it will be contingent on government's willingness to be a little more creative in how we're dealing with some of these substantive issues at the table."

Unprecedented unity among First Nations and instantaneous communications has given Pacheedaht and Ditidaht clout, said Christakos. Government negotiators know when they sit at the table to talk treaty they aren't just talking to two small nations.

"We say 'when we talk to you now about these fundamental requirements of the treaty - certainty, lands and resources, Aboriginal rights - you're talking to every First Nation in the province, because the minute we walk out of this room, we go onto our computers and fan it out.' We have a network that goes to work right away. We tell our neighbors what happened, what the governments have said about various things, and they tell us, and the governments know that. The days of playing off the Indians and divide and conquer are finished. That's why we have confidence that maybe now the governments have come to that realization that their strategy doesn't work, that we'll now get viable, honorable negotiations and that's why we're in it."

He said either people are committed to the notion of diplomacy and negotiations or they abandon it.

"If you abandon that, you then go to direct action, confrontation and law. We think the investment that's been made in diplomatic process of treaty negotiation --and I think this represents the view of (Ditidaht Chief) Jack Thompson and (Pacheedaht Chief) Marvin McClurg - is too great to throw out the window yet," said Christakos.

Pacheedaht and Ditidaht on Vancouver Island's West Coast could reach an agreement-in-principle by year-end if government policies change, he said.

"We're still optimistic." The ground rules for federal and provincial government negotiators are changing daily, he said. The governments are coming to the realization things have to change. We hae seen changes in mandates in the last couple of months. Some things they refuse to talk about, even as recently as six months ago, like resource sharing, are now on the table." Compensation for lost resources, another sticking point, is also on the table.

Some headway has been made, but government negotiators are "in the swimming pool with their hands tied" with mandates that don't work.

"We think the governments are going to have to modify their position and we're optimistic we are going to be successful in moving the governments along those fundamental issues, which will open the door to each First Nation negotiating a treaty that's relevant to its context," said Christakos. "The context and need are different from door-to-door. The needs and context of the Burrard people in North Vancouver bear absolutely no relationship whatsoever to Ditidaht and Pacheedaht. They're so dramatically different."

He said the cookie cutter approach to negotiations has to be abandoned.

Nanaimo-based Snuneymuxw, one of the 10 treaty tables in Vancouver Island involving about 22,000 First Nation's people, continues to negotiate. It, like Pacheedaht and Ditidaht, is one of the lead tables and is concerned about the limited mandate given to government negotiators, said Rodger.

Members are concerned about the amount of time and money invested in negotiations.

"It's been a slow, expensive process for them and they haven't seen substantive results yet," Rodger said. "They're anxious for results. They are committed to negotiations. Their hopes and dreams are attached to this," he said. "I'm a negotiator so I have to remain optimistic we'll be able to resolve these roadblocks over the next several months. I owe it to the community to make the best of these negotiations that I can." Rodger continues to hope an agreement-in-principle can be reached by year-end, but concedes that would be a tough schedule to meet and means overcoming major obstacles like the issues of certainty and revenue-saring.

The lesson to be learned from Sechelt is to "get everything you want in the treaty in the AIP," said Rodger. "We'll want to make sure the agreement-in-principle represents everything the Snuneymuxw people want in a treaty. We're not willing to take that kind of chance that we'll be able to come back to it in stage 5 (final agreement) of negotiations. And, in fact, that is the message we received from (Sechelt) Chief Gary Feschuck, that if we want in the treaty, make sure it's in the AIP."

Rodger was weary from just having spent four days pounding the pavement in Ottawa and attending countless meetings with the delegates from the First Nations Summit and First Nations Treaty Negotiations Alliance, which was formed about three years ago to share information.

"We were bringing the message to Ottawa there are some serious impediments to reaching effective treaties." They met with MPs, ministers and senior staffers.

Reaching a treaty in an urban environment, where much of the land has already been privatized, complicates Snuneymuxw negotiations, making it more costly than trying to reach a treaty in a remote area, he said. Members have made it clear they want a land-based treaty.

"They don't want to substitute cash for land. They want a fair land treaty and don't believe they should be penalized because their territory has been urbanized."

Rodger said he was encouraged by recent comments made by provincial Finance Minister Paul Ramsey, one of three members of a high-powered cabinet committee set up by Premier Ujjal Dosanjh to try to find ways to break the treaty deadlock. Ramsey said the committee will recommend increasing the amount of money that negotiators can offer its First Nations, which may lead to "refreshed offers" in existing negotiations, he said.

The Pacheedaht and Ditidaht chiefs, while having mandates from their people to negotiate a treaty, also have a mandate to pull the plug and walk away if they can't get one that achieves community objectives said Christakos. Heartbreak and disillusionment have been part of the process. Last October when a land and cash offer was made to the nations, McClurg didn't hide his bitter disappointment.

"With the benefit of hindsight, we should have gone directly to the courts to protect and assert our rights and interests," he said.

The provincial and Canadian governments offered Ditidaht their existing reserves plus another 1,802 hectares of Crown land and $5.35 million. It created serious problems for chief negotiators at the community level. Community members felt betrayed by the offer, said Christakos.

"They said 'You mean we've wasted all this time and money and what we've got is an offer that would place us in worse circumstances that we are in now under the Indian Act. This is catastrophic.'"

"In our analysis, in a worst-case scenario, if the treaty was accepted by Ditidaht and Pacheedaht, the government would have recovered all of its investments in the treaty in under 10 years through taxation and other means. Others have done huge arithmetic on that sort of thing. The Westbank people hired an actuarial firm to do an analysis and, in their view, the governments would make a fortune on the treaty in no time (if they were made a similar offer)," said Christakos.

The Pacheedaht and Ditidaht offers, like others made and rejected about the same time, were based on the Nisga'a agreement and the costs to be borne by Canada and B.C., said Christakos. "They have simply made a per capita offer to every First Nation that is identical to the per capita offer to Nisga'a." The two nations, which have spent about $2.5 million on their treaty negotiations, analyzed the October offer for several months, with the help of consultants, and concluded they would be "considerably worse off" than the status quo.

Pacheedaht (population 270) has been in detailed negotiations about four years having decided to negotiate jointly with Ditadaht (population 575), which was among the first five