FLETCHER: BC’s latest treaty soon set in stone, except for its costs

Tom Fletcher has covered BC politics and business as a journalist since 1984.VICTORIA — Canada’s first modern treaty incorporating terms of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) has been approved by a majority vote of the BC legislature, with federal ratification and a vote of the K’omoks Nation members expected within the next two years.It’s one of three treaties suddenly brought forward this spring by Premier David Eby’s NDP government. The other one that was tabled in the legislature, the Kitselas treaty involving territory along the Skeena River, has been put off to the fall session after protests and threats of legal and direct action against major projects from other bands with overlapping territorial claims.Is the K’omoks treaty an easier route to paddle? Not exactly. In debate on the treaty, Indigenous Relations Minister Spencer Chandra Herbert confirmed the obvious problem that there are four other Indian Act bands with overlapping claims to the land to be ceded to the K’omoks in the treaty.The four have staged demonstrations at home and at the legislature to demand changes to the treaty, with thinly veiled threats to blockade highways and a BC Hydro dam. In terms of traditional territories, a total of 23 bands have asserted overlapping claims, but so far only the four have come forward. Welcome to the West Coast..K’omoks is the indigenous term for Comox, the eastern Vancouver Island city that hosts a Royal Canadian Air Force base. The band’s territory surrounds the nearby city of Courtenay, extending north to Quadra Island and the southern reaches of Johnstone Strait.The K’omoks treaty passed with the support of all NDP MLAs, plus a handful of BC Conservatives, including the MLA for Comox.Talks for this treaty have dragged on for more than 30 years, with little progress on the maze of overlapping claims. This one and two others were suddenly pushed ahead as Eby’s government faced a crisis over DRIPA, the BC version of UNDRIP, which has cast a shadow over private property and all of BC’s laws.With Eby’s popularity plummeting due to DRIPA, collapsing healthcare, ballooning debt, and threats to private investment, the opposition suggested on the last day of the session that he’s in a hurry to forge a legacy before his party replaces him.Former indigenous relations minister and BC Conservative leader John Rustad questioned Herbert about the K’omoks treaty. Does it include a similar term to BC’s first modern treaty with the Nisga’a Nation, where provincial financial support is wound down as own-source revenues reach a target?.No. There’s a park maintenance fund that winds up after 20 years, but ongoing BC taxpayer support, for developing governance and for other services, continues indefinitely.How about public access to parks in the region? Again, we are assured that this will continue, with beach access to the high-water line open to the public, as is the case traditionally with Crown and private land next to a lake or ocean. “It will be called a tribal park, but it will continue with public access,” Chandra Herbert said of Sandy Island and Seal Islands Marine Park. “Indeed, in speaking with K’omoks Nation chief and council, they’re keen to continue to have public access, of course, as long as it’s done well.” This is similar to the assurances we have from the Cowichan Tribes that they don’t want to take over private land in Richmond, BC. It’s a verbal assurance from the current chief and council, via their array of taxpayer-funded lawyers, that while the text of the trial court judgment gives them the right to take private land, they won’t. More likely, they’ll seek buyouts instead, unless a future chief and council change their minds..Independent MLA Dallas Brodie pressed Herbert on the use of the term “self-sufficiency” in the treaty’s preamble. How is that defined?It’s not. Herbert replied with a word salad about everyone wanting prosperity, clean air, and safe communities.Finally, what about the unprecedented inclusion in the K’omoks treaty of key UNDRIP language, that of the Crown negotiating “free, prior, and informed consent” for any activity?Herbert pointed to a section where BC will negotiate “with the aim of securing the free, prior, and informed consent” of K’omoks. “In BC, we seek consent. We don’t always get it, and that doesn’t necessarily mean we won’t still proceed, but we generally seek consent first before just barrelling ahead,” Herbert said.After Eby’s frantic, abandoned efforts to amend or at least suspend DRIPA and its effects on laws and treaties, this assurance provides little comfort.Tom Fletcher has covered BC politics and business as a journalist since 1984.tomfletcherbc@gmail.comX: @tomfletcherbc

FLETCHER: BC’s latest treaty soon set in stone, except for its costs

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