B.C. limiting land yield to five per cent

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The British Columbia government is willing to yield less than five percent of the province -- 47,000 square kilometres -- to Indian bands to resolve land claims.

The government is not willing to negotiate on any privately owned land and will keep as much land currently leased to non-Natives as possible from becoming part of settlements.

All lands transferred to bands would remain wide open to travel and recreational use by non-Natives, according to the government's master plan for treaty negotiations, obtained by the Globe and Mail. But according to Don Ryan, chief negotiator for the Gitxsan in northwestern B.C., this is nothing new.

"These are just rehashed numbers that we've seen in the past. The Socreds (Social Credit) were making the same noises before the NDP got in," said Ryan.

The Gitxsan and Wet'suwet'en bands have ben fighting for their territorial lands since 1984. Last June 13, they asked the Supreme Court of Canada, which had agreed to hear their land-title case, for an adjournment so they could pursue treaty talks with the federal and provincial governments.

To date, the framework agreement hasn't been signed by either

government, which means the negotiator for the province doesn't have a mandate to actually resolve any issues, Ryan said. The government is stalling because they don't intend to settle any land claims until after an election, which he expects to be called for October 1995 or May 1996.

"This is typical of what they're doing in terms of the pending election -- it's all electioneering," he said.

Chief Saul Terry of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs agrees.

"Those that are involved with the tripartite process out here are lamenting the fact that this is what the provincial government is doing," Terry said.

A basic point at which negotiations can begin has to be set before anything happens, he said, and that has not yet been determined. "They've been denying us 100 per cent all along, anyway," Terry added.

Indian reserves make up less than one per cent of B.C., now, but territorial land claims add up to 110 per cent of the provincial land mass.

"The land is ours," Ryan said. "The province doesn't have any land to give to Indian people."

B.C. is the only province that has never settled land claims, and the federal and provincial governments jointly launched talks in 1992. Since then, at least 43 bands have submitted descriptions of traditional territories and as many as 80 more claims may be lodged.

The document also says that B.C. wants all status Indians to begin to pay federal and provincial taxes once their claims are settled.