When the head of the BC Treaty Commission speaks out on an issue, people pay attention. Sophie Pierre is speaking out about the federal government’s delay in initialing an understanding chief negotiators reached in concluding Tla’Amin (Sliammon) First Nation’s treaty. They concluded their negotiations with a handshake last June, eight months ago. While Tla’Amin and provincial officials have initialed the agreement, the federal government has yet to accept it.
The delay has not only stalled the ratification process Tla’Amin must undertake. It has also bred mistrust among community members, making the task of explaining a complex agreement that much more difficult. It has made Tla’Amin officials wary of the federal government’s intentions. Does the delay signal non-acceptance of the terms?
Pierre pointed out the delay is not only hurting Tla’Amin, it is sending the wrong message to all the other first nations that are in the midst of negotiations and undermining confidence in the process.
Some of those negotiations are stalled because the federal government has granted the Cohen commission on Fraser River sockeye another year to complete its work. In 2009, only about one million sockeye returned in a run that was supposed to number more than 10 million. The government appointed the Cohen commission to investigate the decline.
Subsequently, the federal government announced it would defer negotiating fisheries issues at treaty tables until the Cohen commission completed its work. The report was due by May, 2011, but the commission now has until June 2012.
At least seven first nations are affected by the delay, but Tla’Amin was not supposed to be one of them. It received an exemption and successfully completed the fisheries chapter of its final agreement.
Pierre has called on the federal government to be accountable for the delay by forgiving the debt Tla’Amin is accumulating while waiting to proceed with ratification. Hopefully, federal officials will listen to the commission and initial the agreement Canada’s chief negotiator reached with Tla’Amin. To not do so in a timely manner threatens the entire process.
