Treaties continue to be a vital tool for the protection of First Nations’ land, rights, culture and identity.

The Pacific Business and Law Institute must be predicting a federal re-commitment to the BC Treaty Process because it is organizing a two day conference on treaty making in BC, with a focus on post-Effective Date challenges. See the agenda here.

Treaties are good for remote communities

"Canadians have to start looking at our remote communities differently...Our collective economic wellbeing and our international competitiveness could well depend upon the public policies adopted today that leverage the economic possibilities of many of these communities and their potential to contribute to our nation's wealth" Perrin Beatty, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

Strategic investment in remote communities is good for Canada. What's good for remote communities ought to be good for First Nation communities, too. In her testimony to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, BC Treaty Commission's Chief Commissioner, Sophie Pierre made the case for a shift from a social agenda to an economic agenda for First Nation communities in BC.

She quotes a study by Canadian Chamber of Commerce that calls for strategic investment in Canadian remote communities. However, investment is not enough, she says. The Chief Commissioner calls on the federal government to re-commit to the BC Treaty process. Treaties provide the tools First Nation communities need for sustainable economic development. A re-commitment to the treaty process is a commitment to move from a social agenda to an economic agenda.

The Chief Commission says that for too long, the federal government has pushed its social agenda by holding First Nations by both hands. Treaties will untie First Nations from the federal social agenda. She says the federal government and First Nations need to let go of each other.  When a non-First Nation community prospers, First Nations under the federal social agenda don't always share in the wealth generated. In fact, a rising tide can drown those on the economic margins. A shift to an economic agenda will enable First Nations to prosper too. When a First Nation community prospers, the whole region prospers.

The issue is most critical in BC because of the uncertainty on the land. Chief Commissioner thinks it's crazy to not commit to pursuing the $15 billion that concluding treaties will bring to BC. In times of global economic uncertainty we should be doing all we can to make Canada more attractive to investment. Treaties have a known return.

Is the Harper Government the Problem?

Minister Polak and Chief Commissioner Sophie Pierre, point to the Harper Government for wasting time and money:

Mary Polak, B.C.'s minister of aboriginal relations, said Ottawa's long delay in moving the Tla'amin treaty forward is one of the holdups recently criticized by the B.C. Treaty Commission. Chief Commissioner Sophie Pierre said earlier this month that if federal negotiators aren't given enough authority to reach agreements... governments should consider winding up a process that is nearly 20 years along with more than a billion dollars spent on negotiations alone [full story here].

Can Minister Duncan turn it around, or is the Harper Government committed to wasting time and money? Is Minister Polak deflecting to shield her government from part of the blame?