New Brunswick tax dispute simmering

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Talks between Natives and New Brunswick officials over the imposing of the provincial sales tax have stalled.

Representatives from the Union of New Brunswick Indians met with provincial Finance Minister Allan Maher last week to determine how on-reserve Indians will remain exempt from he province's 11-per-cent sales tax.

But talks between the two groups broke down April 19 and some Natives were threatening to re-mount road blocks erected earlier.

Blockades on provincial highways across New Brunswick appeared after the provinces released its 1993/94 budget proposing to limit the sales tax exemptions enjoyed by on-reserve, status Indians to purchases made only on reserves.

Micmacs from the Eel Bar River Reserve near Dalhousie reacted angrily to the changes April 3 by blocking off a section of Highway 134. A second blockade by Natives from the Burnt Church Reserve went up on Highway 11 a few days later.

Protesters were not initially blocking traffic but were instead stopping cars and trucks to hand out leaflets. Later, however, all traffic was denied passage.

Natives from Big Cove near Richibucto, St. Mary's near Fredericton and Oromocto, south of Fredericton, also erected their own blockades on sections of provincial highways.

The dispute even stretched as far as Quebec, where the Micmacs at Restigouche blocked off a section of the main interprovincial highway.

Residents of the Kingsclear Maliseet Reserve were forced to flee tear gas on the night of April 8 when the RCMP riot squad moved in to dismantle their road block west of Fredericton. Twenty-eight protesters were arrested and 24 of them, including three children, were later charged with mischief.

More violence erupted April 9 at the Red Bank Reserve near Newcastle, New Brunswick, when non-Natives mounted their own road block. An empty car was firebombed and Natives and non-Natives hurled objects at each other across police lines.

Two non-Natives were arrested April 10 at the same blockade when they rammed their vehicle they were driving into a car driven by an Aboriginal. No one was injured in the collision.

That same day, however, chiefs across the province announced the blockades were coming down because the province had clarified its stand on the tax. Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Edmond Blanchard said status Indians would not have to pay the 11-per-cent tax as long as the goods were bought, delivered to, used or consumed on the reserve.

The province estimates it would generate $1 million per year from the additional tax revenue.

Officials also reported that repairs to provincial highways for damage done by fires and redirecting heavy traffic onto seldom used service roads would cost $170,000.