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In-SHUCK-ch nearing final treaty

Negotiator slams Strahl for ‘glancing’ visits
1543treaty
Cautiously Optimistic In-SHUCH-ch chief negotiator Gerard "Eppa" Peters wants to wrap up treaty negotiations with federal and provincial governments in 2009

Gerard Peters wants to bring his people home.

The Chief Negotiator for the 908-member In-SHUCK-ch Nation, which consists of three First Nations living along the Lillooet River and Harrison Lake, has been working on a treaty with the federal and provincial governments that he hopes will bring people back to communities populated by less than a quarter of their native populations.

After over a decade of talks, 2009 could bring light to the end of a long tunnel.

“I think that it's very possible that we'll have a final agreement that the treaty negotiators can initial by June of 2009,” he said in an interview.

The In-SHUCK-ch Nation, consisting of the Douglas, Samahquam and Skatin First Nations, entered negotiations through the B.C. Treaty Commission in December 1993. At the time they entered in a joint effort with the N’Quatqua band from Anderson Lake. Negotiations broke down in 1999 and both parties withdrew from the treaty process.

However the In-SHUCK-ch Nation, this time without N’Quatqua, re-entered the process in 2002 and has since made a lot more progress.

The Treaty Commission was established in 1992 by an agreement between Canada, B.C and the First Nations Summit. It does not negotiate treaties itself, but facilitates discussions between the governments of Canada, B.C. and provincial First Nations.

The commission prescribes a six-stage process for negotiating treaties. It begins when a First Nation files a Statement of Intent (SOI) showing a mandate to enter the treaty process. The SOI describes the geographic area of the First Nation’s territory and identifies overlaps with other First Nations.

From there, the Commission has to arrange an initial meeting of the three parties within 45 days of accepting the SOI. This meeting represents the first time that the First Nation sits down at a treaty table with representatives from the federal and provincial governments. It helps determine the readiness of all parties to negotiate.

Stage three of the treaty process effectively sets out the subjects to be addressed in negotiations. For the In-SHUCK-ch Nation, those subjects include land and resources, financial settlement and governance.

Stage four of negotiations involves working out an agreement-in-principle (AIP), a point at which the parties examine in-depth the issues outlined in the framework agreement.

The In-SHUCK-ch Nation wants title over approximately 14,518 hectares of land stretching from the lower Lillooet River to upper Harrison Lake. It also wants the rights to self-govern, develop their own constitution and create their own laws and governing structure.

The AIP is followed by negotiations to finalize a treaty, where the In-SHUCK-ch stands today. It’s at this stage that technical and legal issues are worked out among all the parties before moving on to implement a final agreement.

But before that can happen, Peters said there’s a number of issues that need to be worked out — namely, the fact that a hefty majority of In-SHUCK-ch people don’t live on their traditional territory.

“Fully 80 per cent of my people are resident away from the home territory,” he said. “Even the 20 per cent who are at home, some of them I think are living in what has been described by others than myself as third world conditions.”

Pictures from the Skatin territory have shown decrepit houses with trash piled up in front, all the while facing an unpaved dirt road that leads through the community.

“Anyone who’s been in the valley will see, particularly at Skatin or Skookumchuk, the housing is deplorable and crowded,” Peters said. “Some people I know are living in houses, if they’re not condemned, they should be.”

Peters, who lives in Abbotsford, understands that bringing his people back to their traditional territory will take a lot of changes — and that’s where he comes in.

His goal is to bring the infrastructure of In-SHUCK-ch communities up to a standard similar to those on Lil’wat and Chehalis reserves, which have maintained respective on-reserve populations of 40 and 60 per cent, according to him.

His ultimate goal is to have an average on-reserve In-SHUCK-ch population of just over 50 per cent. To do that, he estimates he’ll need a significant amount of money from the federal government — around $96 million, to be exact.

“I’m not suggesting at all that this occur overnight and not even in one year,” Peters said in an interview. “We think about a generation, say 20 years, where this will occur, but I need some real commitments. And the commitment, at least in 2008 dollars, over that period of time, is $96 million.”

The money, he said, would go specifically towards housing. And he wants that figure to come as part of treaty negotiations because after they’re done, he doesn’t feel there will be any incentive for governments to infuse more money into the communities.

Though he said he’s put that need on the treaty table, Peters claims that In-SHUCK-ch communities aren’t getting enough attention from Chuck Strahl, the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, whose riding includes the entire In-SHUCK-ch Nation.

Peters said the Minister has only taken a “passing glance” at the community’s problems when visiting.

“He has been in there, but it has been, in my opinion, a sort of glancing visit,” he said. “He’s not paid the attention I think that he might otherwise.

“I think he needs to know first-hand what the need is and for the life of me I simply can’t get a positive response from him to visit the communities.”

Strahl, however, disputes Peters’s assertions, saying that he has indeed visited the In-SHUCK-ch communities but he also points out that there are 42 First Nations in his own riding and more than 600 others that he’s responsible for.

“It is true I’m not there on a monthly basis, but I’ve certainly been there lots, “ he said in an interview.

He also said that, as Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, it’s not his job to personally get involved in treaty negotiations.

“I appoint a negotiator and I don’t get in the middle of it,” he said. “I get a mandate from our cabinet to give to our negotiator and say this is the parameters you’re working in.

“Say there’s a $50 million number on it. Then the negotiator knows that they can only negotiate (that number), he only has authority to go with what cabinet has approved. So they do all negotiations based on a mandate that comes from cabinet. It’s never money, it’s just a whole package of things brought on the table.”

Housing, however, isn’t the only thing that Peters wants to address as part of treaty negotiations. The In-SHUCK-ch Nation wants access to the power grid and regular telephone service — neither are things that all people in those communities enjoy at present.

The In-SHUCK-ch communities also need an improved access road, as the current one is an old forest services road that often floods and leaves its members stranded.

In order for a final treaty to go through, all of these problems need to be addressed — and for Peters, the first step towards making that happen is getting the federal government to listen.

“Mr. Strahl was along on a caravan that left from, oh, the mid-Fraser Valley… about four or five years ago, and at the time he was a member of the opposition and he favoured improvements to the road,” he said. “Well now he’s in a position to do something about it and he hasn’t stepped up to the plate yet and I wish he would.”

If approved, the In-SHUCK-ch Nation will count itself among a number of other First Nations that have successfully negotiated treaties through the B.C. Treaty Commission process. They include the Tsawwassen First Nation, which ratified a treaty in 2007.

At the moment, Peters is gunning to have an agreement signed by June of 2009, but of course, that hinges on a number of other factors being in place first.

“This depends on certain matters being advanced to the point where I can recommend it to my leaders and they can take it to the people,” he said.