B.C. pushes feds over ‘pre-treaty’ agreements

OTTAWA — The B.C. government is pushing the Harper government to participate in, and contribute money to, “pre-treaty” agreements as a way to revive a stalled treaty process that has produced a paltry three final agreements over two decades.

The pitch comes even though the province’s approach has been openly questioned by the independent body set up by B.C. and Ottawa in 1992 to facilitate treaty negotiations between First Nations the two governments.

The B.C. Treaty Commission warned in its annual report last year that the provincial government’s focus on such deals with First Nations could be a “distraction” to the broader goal of reviving the molasses-slow treaty process.

But B.C. Aboriginal Relations Minister Mary Polak, joined on her trip to Ottawa by a supportive B.C. native leader and the head of the B.C. Business Council, said baby steps are necessary to build faith and progress.

“We understand the concerns of our colleagues in the B.C. Treaty Commission with regard to some of our reconciliation efforts,” Polak told the Senate’s aboriginal peoples committee Wednesday.

“At the same time, the province and First Nations cannot wait indefinitely for the economic benefits of final treaties. The province cannot wait indefinitely for Canada to address its impediments to treaty negotiations. Neither can First Nations and other British Columbians.”

Polak was joined by B.C. Business Council president Greg D’avignon, who is urging the Conservative government to end economic uncertainty on the West Coast by reviving the treaty process, and Nanwakolas Tribal Council president Dallas Smith.

Smith, who supports B.C.’S push to strike the interim deals, said Thursday that B.C. First Nations have huge struggles getting progress on comprehensive land and self-government deals since Prime Minister Stephen Harper formed a minority Tory government in 2006.

He said he came to Ottawa to try to pitch Tory MPS on the business case for getting greater interest in the process from Ottawa, since the end of uncertainty could boost confidence among Canadian and foreign investors in B.C.’S natural resource wealth.

“We think that’s sort of our ‘in’ to the Conservative government, by using their business allies,” Smith said.

The Senate committee is analyzing reasons why the treaty process, which marks two decades of work this year, has produced only three final agreements — the Nisga’a First Nation (that agreement wasn’t part of the B.C. Treaty Commission), the Tsawwassen First Nation, and the Maa-nulth group of five First Nations on Vancouver Island.

Another 60 First Nations are at various stages of negotiations.

The B.C. Treaty Commission, from 1993 to the spring of 2011, allocated $533 million to help First Nations negotiate — with $422 million in the form of loans repayable from the ultimate cash settlement from a comprehensive treaty, and the remaining $111 million in nonrepayable grants.

Federal taxpayers are on the hook for 60 per cent of the commission’s budget, with Victoria picking up the rest.

Polak said in an interview that Victoria wants Ottawa to participate in the negotiation of so-called pre-treaty deals that are intended to remove uncertainty over economic development projects.

She said Ottawa could be a major contributor by helping to clear the way for environmental permits as well as possibly putting up cash up front. (In the B.C. treaty process the province provides Crown land, while the federal government contributes cash.)

“It certainly would advance our ability to streamline permitting and project development if we had the federal government as partners in those agreements and it wasn’t just with British Columbia,” she said.

Polak said the B.C. government has signed about 70 “forest consultation revenue-sharing agreements” and two “mining tax revenue agreements.”