Sechelt land claim moving ahead

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The Sechelt Indian Band is celebrating what it's calling an "historic occasion" this month after becoming the first band working under the B.C. Treaty Commission to move past bureaucratic hurdles and into actual negotiations.

That happened after chief negotiator for the federal government, Robin Dodson, announced Canada has agreed to a plan or "mandate" that will govern the direction of negotiation talks with the Sechelt band, located on the Sunshine Coast of B.C., as well as the more than 40 other B.C. and Yukon bands under the commission. The announcement came at a meeting of the federal, provincial and Sechelt Native governments in Victoria at the end of June.

Land claim negotiations with Sechelt had been stalled for more than eight months while the federal government wrestled out a plan it could work within.

The province announced its approval to proceed with negotiations in May of this year while the band stated its readiness in February.

Over the months, the band's negotiating team, led by Chief Garry Feschuk, had expressed growing frustration with the commission's negotiation system, at one point threatening to quit the process, calling it "a waste of time."

Since the federal government's announcement, Feschuk said it "feels good" to finally be heading in the direction of concluding the band's outstanding land claims.

". . .We are going to push them hard to get this treaty finished quickly. Doing so would be to the benefit of the entire province," Feschuk said.

But whether the process will begin to move much faster than it has to date isn't yet certain. According to negotiators, that will depend on what sort of difficulties the three parties may encounter along the way. Clearly, all three negotiating parties feel better about the process since the federal government's announcement.

"We're further ahead than we were a few weeks ago," Dodson commented after the Victoria meeting.

Dodson said the Canadian government will not be publicly releasing its specific positions regarding land claim negotiations in advance. It will be made clear over the course of the talks "what direction the federal government is going in," he added.

The provincial team, led by Linda Jolson, is also keeping its specific negotiating position under close wraps while the Sechelt band formally opened their claim to the public early in the negotiating process.

Foremost on their list, the band is seeking compensation in the amount of $77,784,980 for past injustices. That number is derived from the number of Sechelt Band Members as of Dec. 31,1994 ? 910 people ? multiplied by $85,478 (a figure based on results of prior settlements and negotiations with other bands).

As well, the band is seeking an expansion of approximately 1,000 acres to their existing land base, sole ownership of minerals lying within that territory, and the right to retain all their Aboriginal rights, both as defined today and as those rights defined in the future.

Formal recognition of Sechelt self-government, and the proposition that it be constitutionally entrenched by both the provincial and federal governments, is also among the list of issues to be negotiated, as is the full protection of band heritage sites. The sites are to be co-managed by the band and province with all Sechelt artifacts, currently located in a variety of locations in Canada and around the world, returned to the Sechelt museum.

Among the more controversial issues, the band is proposing sharing on a 50/50 basis with the provincial government the royalties and other payments accrued from natural resources in the Sechelt traditional territory ? an area of 4,900 square miles on the Sunshine Coast.

A framework agreement acknowledging the three governments' commitment to move into negotiations is scheduled to be signed in a formal ceremony attended by federal Minster of Indian Affairs Ron Irwin, provincial Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Cashore and Chief Feschuk.