Nisga'a agreement 110-years in the making

Page 3

A long-anticipated agreement has been reached between the Nisga'a Tribal Council, and the governments of British Columbia and Canada. The agreement will be used as the basis for negotiations of the first modern-day treaty in the province and ends over 100-years of waiting for the northern B.C. Natives.

The province presented the new Nisga'a agreement-in-principle for public review Feb. 15. It outlines a deal which has been described by Chief Joe Gosnell Sr., president of the Nisga'a Tribal Council, as a hard-fought compromise that has seen a generation of Nisga'a growing old at the negotiating table."

The chronology of events that led to the agreement began in 1887 when Nisga'a chiefs traveled to Victoria to demand recognition of title, negotiation of treaties and provision for self-government.

Only in 1976, after a Supreme Court of Canada decision which unanimously recognized the possible existence of Aboriginal rights to land and resources, did Canada begin negotiating with the Nisga'a.

What results after 20-years of negotiation is a deal that may sit well with the Nisga'a themselves, but which is, at best, controversial to both the Native and non-Native communities.

In brief, the general provisions of the agreement include the cash payment of $190 million ($175.5 million from the federal government and $14.5 million from the B.C. government).

As well, the Nisga'a will own 1,930 sq. km of land in the lower Nass River area, including the four villages of New Aiyansh, Canyon City, Greenville and Kincolith. The 56 Indian reserves will cease to exist and will instead become Nisga'a lands.

The Nisga'a will fashion their self-government structure after local government. They will be able to make laws governing culture, language, employment, public works, the regulation of traffic and transportation, land use and marriage. The Indian Act will eventually no longer apply to the Nisga'a. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well as the Criminal Code of Canada will continue to apply.

The Nisga'a will receive $11.5 million toward the purchase of commercial fishing vessels and licenses, although no constitutionally entrenched Nisga'a commercial fishing rights will be part of the treaty. They will receive an annual treaty-entitlement of salmon, which will, on average, comprise of approximately 18 per cent of the Canadian Nass River total allowable catch.

The Nisga'a may purchase up to 150,000 cu. m of an existing forest licence.

While the Nisga'a remain Aboriginal under the Constitution Act of 1982, they will sign away their tax-exempt status and be subject to pay the kinds of taxes other Canadian citizens pay. This will occur after a transitional period of eight years for transaction (i.e. sales) taxes and 12 years for other taxes (i.e. income).

This provision sticks in the craw of many Aboriginal leaders and activists who have fought against the erosion of the Native tax-exempt status.

Manitoba Native leader Phil Fontaine said Aboriginal Manitobans will never pay taxes to Canada or the province under any self-government deal he would negotiate. He said Natives have already given up 99 per cent of the land mass in the country which constitutes their fair share of the tax lad many times over.

Roger Obonsawin, of the OI Group of Companies, said the provision shouldn't even be on the table. Obonsawin is active in the fight against Native taxation and was one of the organizers of a group that occupied Revenue Canada offices in Toronto in January 1995 in protest over new laws that would see Native people living off reserve pay taxes.

He said this is a "chink in the armor" for other Native groups negotiating treaties and land claim agreements. "It puts the other side in control."

However, the Nisga'a government will also have the power to tax Nisga'a citizens on Nisga'a land and will work out a tax-delegation agreement with B.C. to impose property taxes on non-Nisga'a occupiers of Nisga'a lands.

The Nisga'a governent itself will be tax-exempt in respect to its government activities, which is similar to other governments in Canada.

The release of the Nisga'a agreement to the public begins the next phase in the negotiation process. The opinions and concerns of British Columbians, with a focus on the region that is involved in the treaty process, will b sought out.

British Columbia's NDP Premier Mike Harcourt said it remains to be seen whether the agreement will meet the test of fairness in public opinion and receive provincial endorsement.

The agreement should be fuel for the fire of debate in the province's pre-election political environment. Already the agreement has drawn shots from Liberal leader Gordon Campbell and B.C. Reform Party leader Jack Weisgerber.

Weisgerber called the agreement too rich, too generous in terms of fish, too exclusionary of non-Natives, fundamentally misguided and totally unacceptable.

However, Canada's Indian Affairs minister was enthusiastic in his endorsement of the deal.

"This is more than a piece of paper leading to another piece of paper, sand Ron Irwin. "The honor of the Crown in on the line."