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| map is from the Kitimat Clean website |
This land clearly is of interest to the First Nations. I would be very surprised if as part of the Treaty process that Kitselas was not looking at this land as part of their potential settlement. The Tsimshian as a whole were close to the completion of an Agreement in Principle in 2004 but then had some internal divisions meaning that several of the Tsimshian members dropped out. Kitselas is one of the five members of the Tsimshian First Nations in the BCTC process.
This land is such a choice piece of land that I can not imagine it not being a core of the Kitselas settlement and removing it from the mix now is rather prejudicial to the Treaty negotiations. As it is at the moment the 585 members of the Kitselas are land poor with just over 1000 hectares of land not all of it in useful locations for housing or economic development purposes.
Kitselas is on the only Tsimshian community with an interest the area. Metlakatla has the land as part of their terrritory. The refinery site is only 8 kilometers from reserve lands of Lax-kw'alaams so I would think they have an interest in the area as well. The Haisla have part of the site within their territory.
The site is clearly on the obvious route between the Skeena River and the areas on Douglas Channel. I have no doubt the site was heavily used by First Nations over millennia.
All of this means First Nations have strong aboriginal rights in the area. Nothing can be done on this site without accommodation of the aboriginal rights which effectively means working with the First Nations as partners and assuming they have an almost ownership right to the land.
The first step in the refinery proposal has to be building strong positive relationships with the local First Nations, without that there is a high probability of the project not getting out of the starting block.
2 comments:
I'm thinking we'd better call it the "Takes us to the Cleaners Refinery as it will take huge taxpayer dollars to steal the First nations rights to their land (and as the crown claims it it's a pretty little handout to a friend eh?) Note from facebook: Lisa Barrett via Derrick O'Keefe
Remember David Black's ban on publication of any support for BC First Nations' interests in his 'newspapers' and online media? It makes a lot of sense now if you see it in selfish economic terms, not just racist bias.
Sue Stroud
I'm hoping BC will save at least a small piece of land to build a school on. Canada needs a place to send politicians, lobbyists, cronies and hacks, so they can be retrained as useful and contributing citizens rather than continuing as complete idiots.
Thus the Minister of Fisheries could learn what a salmon is.. or was. Peter Kent could actually see a wolf, rather that legislating the poisoning of thousands of them. Joe Oliver could sit under a tree and contemplate the 'nature' of a 'resource' rather than pipe lining or strip mining every resource. That political hack Carson that PM Harper kept hiring could be set up to run the school.. (OK.. just kidding) Peter Mackay could learn the difference between a fishing trip and 'being on a mission.
Surely you have excellent candidates out there in BC that could benefit from remedial courses in Truth Telling, Environmental Stewardship, Advanced Accountability.. Trustworthiness for Beginners. If enrollment is slow, we have lots and lots of advanced fools like Peter Clement, Dean Del Mastro et al, here in Ontario that could use some 'schooling'.
I must say that great numbers of our political thugs, economists & hacks etc have already migrated west like Stephen Harper, I assume to become oilmen, loggers or cowboys, so keep an eye out for them.. and offer them a spot in that school if you do decide to build it.
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