Native Land Claims

What is the current status of the First Nations Land Claims in the Province of British Columbia? Assess the progress that has been made so far and provide some suggestions to expedite the process.

The Canadian government says that it is dedicated to making its obligations to First Nations by discussing issues and bringing closure to all claims. Canada likes to underlie that by looking at the historic inequality and building strong partnerships among First Nations people; governments, and the private sector are emerging. Nevertheless, the current progress of First Nations Land Claims is very unhurried and seems to be deliberately painstaking.

The Canadian government divides Aboriginal claims into two categories that are dealt with under a detailed process made up by government.

The first category is considered the Comprehensive claims which are founded on Aboriginal rights and title that have not been extinguished by the Indian Act or other legal means. All land claims fall under the comprehensive claim. The second category is called the specific claim, which is those regarding breaches of treaty promises, improper isolation of reserve or surrendered lands and loss of First Nations Band funds. These specific claims, which are breaches of treaty promises have been settled very slowly. Canada has officially settled 100 of the 600-700 specific claims that are still in question. Also, only ten comprehensive claim agreements have been settled since 1973 when the federal government's policy was announced.

STATUS

On the provincial level, British Columbia and the First Nations in the province started the British Columbia Treaty Commission to facilitate the negotiation of treaties. Its main purposes are to evaluate the readiness of the parties to begin negotiation, to allocate negotiation funding to Aboriginal groups, assist in obtaining services to resolve disputes, and monitor on the status of negotiations. There are currently 57 First Nations participating in the BC treaty process at 46 negotiation tables. In negotiations there are 6 stages which are:

STAGE 1: Statement of Intent

Status: Currently no activity going on in this stage.

STAGE 2: Preparing for Negotiations

Status: Currently 8 negotiations going on in this stage.

STAGE 3: Negotiating a Framework Agreement

Status: Currently 2 negotiations going on in this stage.

STAGE 4: Negotiating a Agreement in Principle

Status: Currently 41 negotiations going on in this stage.

STAGE 5: Negotiating a Treaty

Status: Currently only 6 negotiations going on in this stage.

STAGE 6: Implementation of the Treaty

Status: Currently no activity going on in this stage.

THOUGHTS FOR ACCELERATION

The Canadian government can do many things to accelerate the land claims process in British Columbia and Canada.

First, it seems that there is a big underlying bias that is brought to every negotiating table. The only thing that seems to be logical is to start an independent Aborignal group with legislative authority. This way, the current bias created with government serving as a funding agent for negotiation, defence counsel, judge and jury in matters involving its own past conduct can be abolished.

Also, in many instances the federal government offers only cash compensation to settle claims. It seems that the primary purpose of these claims is to provide Aboriginals with greater control over their habitual territories. Cash compensation should be paid only if there is no other way to get around recovering a land claim. Settlements also include making reserve lands that cannot be bought or sold by aboriginals.

Another suggestion that I could make is to formulate a policy that states that after a claim is made and accepted into further negotiations, all hearings and meetings must be arranged within 90 days and then the final decision on the settlement may be no later than six months from the initial claim acceptance date. Also, policies should be instated that at least twenty land claims have to be established and instated per year. As I see it, the only way to get land claims figured out is to tackle them as soon as possible. Having the Canadian government postpone hearings on these topics will never resolve the issue and