Nisga'a land claim nears agreement

Negotiations marred by leaked documents, critical opponents

Page 23

As B.C.'s precedent-setting land claim settlement draws closer to being a done deal, critics are crying that its proposed $125-million and 1,900-square kilometre price tag is too rich and negotiations not public enough.

But the Nisga'a Tribal Council is asking for $3 billion in compensation and 10,660 square kilometres of traditional lands and says Ottawa and the province would be getting off easy with what they offered.

The Nisga'a accuses opponents of deliberately trying to sabotage the settlement with the leaked information.

And the council and the govenment have defended the necessity of keeping the talks closed because both sets of figures are preliminary.

According to a leaked document of an offer made last year, the 6,000 member band in northwestern British Columbia would get $100 million in compensation, $25 million for economic development, 100 commercial salmon fishing licenses and 15.5 million cubic metres of timber.

The most vocal critics, the Reform Party, say the proposal sets a dangerous precedent.

"It's important that British Columbians understand that this is not about one small Indian band in northwestern B.C. "It's going to be the first and it's going to set the pace," said Reform MP Mike Scott, whose riding includes Nisga'a territory.

"I'm really concerned because our whole economy in the northwest is primarily driven by forestry and when we talk about 15.5 million cubic metres, that would almost certainly have an impact on the existing sawmills in the area."

He and others have said they're suspicious over the secrecy of the talks.

"The only conclusion that I can come to is that they're intending to do things that the public would never ever find acceptable," said Scott. "And I find that alarming."

But Premier Mike Harcourt defends the closed-door process, despite calls from opposition politicians, the fishing and forestry industry and some rural communities to make them public.

"That's one of the problems with letting out the initial bargaining positions - we're so far off the mark, as far as I'm concerned that if people say that it what we are agreeing to, it inflames sentiments even more," he said after the leak.

"So that proposal of, 'Here, let's see opening negotiating positions that we don't agree with at all', can in some cases through the media and through political provocation became what we re agreeing to, which totally inflames negotiations and harms these negotiations," said Harcourt.

He said the treaty will be debated in the legislature when it's complete.

Nisga'a top negotiator Joseph Gosnell said the talks must remain confidential.

"I would like to underline, however, that there have been significant changes since last summer. This leaked material is old news. An eight-month old document is insignificant."

And he accused detractors of trying to derail the process.

"What's really going on this week is a well-orchestrated, well-funded campaign designed to prevent the Nisga'a and all other B.C. First Nations from taking their rightful place in Canadian society.

The two negotiating positions seem impossibly far apart. The Nisga'a want $269,800 and 2.1 square kilometres for each member, while the governments are offering less than a tenth of that, $20,000 each, and less than half a square kilometre each.

The $25 million offered would be earmarked: $6 million for a new port, $3 million for a museum, and $14 million for reforestation and fisheries enhancement. The Nisga'a treaty talks started almost 20 years ago, in 1976, after the Supreme Court of Canada agreed Indians owned their land before B.C. existed.

But B.C. didn't agree to join the table until 1990.

The treaty is expected to set a precedent for treaties negotiated through the B.C. Treaty Commission, formed recently to redress the fact that B.C.. First Nations have never signed an agreement with the Crown as Indians in other provinces did about acentury ago.

The Nisga'a are backing up their $2 billion claim for compensation with an independent audit by the accounting firm Price Waterhouse that details their losses to non-Native industry that was released last month.

The two-and-a-half year $137,000 study puts a dollar figure on the he value of harvested resources, and it estimated losses as high as: forestry, $3 billion; fisheries, $1 billion; minerals $188 million; income $308 million; tourism, $21 million; for a total of $4.3 billion.

A framework agreement between government and the Nisga'a is expected to be competed this month.