Federal Chief Negotiator Barkwell on Conflict between Yale Treaty and Stó:lō Interests

The Federal Chief Negotiator's response to the a question from Hon. Carolyn Bennett on the conflict between the Yale Treaty and Stó:lō interests.

Federal Chief Negotiator, Jim Barkwell's response...

Thank you. I will try to be brief, but there was a very extensive consultation process and three years of work to address the question the member raises.

    We started in 2008 and involved over 60 first nations that are in the Yale area. We mailed out information to them and offered them an opportunity to meet with us and provide their views. A year later, we provided the final agreement to them so they would have that as detailed information, and we did the same thing.

     As a result of that process, which was a joint one between me—I'm the senior federal representative on this particular file—and the provincial senior representative, we offered to have consultation meetings with those who were interested in providing detailed input to us.

    We had 11 such meetings. As a result of that, we made several adjustments to the actual Yale treaty agreement, in addition to the things that are already built into our treaty model to protect the interests of other first nations, such as the non-derogation clause that Mr. Borbey references.

    We are very careful in terms of land selection. We chose lands that we added to the Yale Indian reserves that were near the reserves and, as much as possible, away from areas where other first nations have interests. We specifically excluded one area known as the Yale beach, which is a public access area that allows fishermen to enter onto the water to exercise their fishing rights. We did that early on.

    As a result of the consultation process and the input we received from Chief Joe Hall, whom you may have met, and other Stó:lo representatives, we made several other adjustments. We reduced the harvesting area—that's where they can hunt, fish, gather plants, and so on—to exclude Harrison Lake, because one first nation indicated an interest in that area. Chief Hope of the Yale agreed with that. We designated one area of new treaty settlement land known as Frozen Lakes as public. In the treaty, that's identified for public access so that other first nations and the public are able to go onto those lands. Some of those lands are culturally significant to first nations.

    The third measure we undertook as a result of the consultation is an access protocol, which is an actual treaty provision we put in to indicate that access may be requested by any individual and that Yale may not unreasonably refuse to grant that access. This was done—and it applies to all people—particularly bearing in mind the interests of the Stó:lo representatives who had given us input. The standard backstop we have is the non-derogation language, which essentially asserts that no impact on other first nations is intended as a result of the treaty provisions. Essentially, if in the future a court determines there has been an adverse effect on a treaty provision, that provision will operate, or will be amended, so that it does not adversely affect that right.

    I will just mention a couple of other things very quickly. The dispute or issue between Yale and some of the Stó:lo groups exists today. It isn't just a treaty-related issue, because it pertains to the Indian reserves themselves and a different view that the Stó:lo have in terms of how those reserves should be handled, even though they are currently held by the crown on behalf of Yale.

    There is a reasonable point to be made that, through this treaty provision that I mentioned, the access protocol provision, the Stó:lo in a post-treaty world will have a higher level of access to some of the lands that are in contention than they do currently under the Indian Act.

    Secondly, Chief Hope has made some public comments. He has indicated that--and I will tell you how he was quoted in some newspaper articles--the process of permitting, which is not currently accepted by the Stó:lo groups, may not “be imposed right away, if at all”. He said, “It may be better to put that aside”. Essentially he is saying that another option would be to have direct talks with families who have traditional fishing sites in the canyon. He is quoted as saying, “I'm hoping between then and now to sit down with [Chief] Joe Hall and others to talk in a reasonable manner and plan things out for Stó:lo people to come up to Yale.” Those are the chief's own remarks about how he is open to having an outside protocol or some other arrangement that would be suitable.

    In that regard, the last point I will make is that we do have funding available through a process called treaty-related measures. We are providing funding to Yale in order to develop some work on the fisheries protocol.