Sechelt thriving under self-government

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The sun is shining on a beautiful, warm August day in this picturesque resort town on B.C.'s Sunshine Coast, home of the only Native band in B.C., and one of a handful in Canada, that has self-government.

The salmon are jumping in the Pacific Ocean as they return to spawn at the hatchery on Sechelt Nation lands, which hug the western shore of the B.C. mainland, accessible only a 40-minute ferry ride from Vancouver.

Down the road from the fish farm, which provides Coho salmon for local pleasure and commercial fishermen, a conveyor belt continuously ships tonnes of gravel to waiting barges. The gravel pit is run a local construction company in a joint venture that provides about half of the band's $2 million of annual revenues.

All along the coast, about a 20-minute drive from the ferry dock and the town of Gibsons, where the old CBC show The Beachcombers was filmed, vacationing non-Native cottagers enjoy the summer on land leased from the band. This puts the other $1 million a year in the band's coffers.

And light float planes from Sechelt's money-making commuter fleet buzz through the blue sky overhead, flying tourists and businessmen to Nanaimo and Vancouver across Georgia Strait and other destinations.

Life at Sechelt wasn't always so peaceful or prosperous. In the 1950s, Sechelt, along with many other Canadian bands, was stuck in a dismal cycle of poverty, says band councilor Calvin Craigan. Craigan, along with Chief Garry Feschuk, councillor Wesley Jeffries and tow other councillors run affairs for the 870-member band. Some 450 band members live on band lands.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the band approached the Indian Affairs minister of the day, Otto Lang and Jean Chretien, to discuss self-government.

"That's always been the dream of our forefathers," says Craigan. "They knew we would need self-government to be self-sufficient."

"Once they realized they wouldn't be able to negotiate with the Queen" for their Aboriginal right of self-government,"they knew they had to educate themselves and beat (the federal government) at their own game."

They hired two non-Native advisers, lawyer Graham Allen and financial adviser Gordon Anderson, both of whom still work for the band, to help train their people.

Craigan, 21, had quit school after grade 10 to run his own painting and decorating business. He and other young band members were among the first to go away to school in Vancouver to learn business administration.

They set their sights on gaining self-government for the band. Oct. 9, 1986, the federal government under Indian Affairs minister John Crosbie passed Bill C93, which freed the Sechelt band from the Indian Act and set it up as its own government. The new government was ratified with near unanimous support during four band referenda.

The government is a complex mix of federal, provincial and municipal powers bound together with Canadian federal and provincial laws. It has its own constitution and follows parliamentary procedure. The legislation allows the band to adopt B.C. law into their own constitution to make it band law, explains Feschuk.

Their lands are now called band lands, not a reserve, and can be developed, taxed, mortgaged, and even sold without federal involvement.

This is perhaps the greatest advantage to enable the band to embark on business ventures, explains Craigan.

"That's because the Indian Act does not allow bands to mortgage reserve lands, which are held in trust the government for use Natives, to prevent the lands from being seized as collateral for loans.

But the Sechelt council says its constitution guarantees against the selling of their lands because any such sale would require approval 75 per cent of the membership

(and that 75 per cent of the members come out for the vote.)

Sechelt doesn't pay taxes to the federal or provincial government. And it collects its own taxes, using the B.C. assessment authority, through the band, for use the Sechelt Indian Govenment Department.

The band receives grants for improving the band's infrastructure, such as roads, sewers, "just like any other municipality," says Craigan. Their yearly operating budget is $3 million. they make about $ million in revenues and they have "a few million" invested, says Craigan.

The councillors say they expect any companies with interest in or around their claimed lands to co-operate with the band.

"They're going to have to jump on the bandwagon or be left behind," says Jeffries.

But not all dealings with other groups are going as smoothly because some of the surrounding communities and other levels of government don't recognize the band as a legitimate government, they say.

Craigan says it's a matter of the province not knowing how to deal with a self-governing band and that new policies are not established.

"They're using this band as a scapegoat or a guinea pig," he says. "To me it's a power struggle. I feel there's a lot of jealousy, resentment. You know, we're taking over."

But it brings up an important issue for Native self-government. Does the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms supersede Native law, particularly in the case of Native women who fear inequality on some male-dominated reserves, as was brought up during last year's constitutional talks?

Craigan says that's not a current concern because their self-government is primarily for economic purposes. The other governments still run the justice system, policing and health care, all Canadian laws still apply and members can appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, says Craigan.

"Maybe in the future when we're more developed and more sophisticated, we'll go for full sovereignty.

"We still depend on the Great White Father to protect us under their constitution. We think it's a good law."

The band prefers to devote their energies to economic development and job creation.

Unemployment runs about 50 per cent in the band, where 85 per cent of the members are under 40, but Craigan sas the goal is to have full employment in two years.

The band is in a joint venture with a local developer on the project and stipulates that a certain percent of the workers must be Native.

That arrangement works with the gravel pit, which has 25 years of gravel left in it, where one in five of the jobs must be filled local Natives.

"We encourage joint ventures - they form a better relationship with the rest of the communities and we won't take on projects we don't have the expertise in because it dooms them for failure."

Council recommends bands "take an inventory of themselves" and start small ventures, working up to larger ones, and expect to work, long, hard hours.

"The sacrifices we made caused a lot of families to break up," says Craigan.

"It's a heavy agenda - it's burned out a lot of the leaders."

He says bands should work toward gaining control first because "self-government gives you better leverage" in dealing with the government and non-Natives.