First Nations are condemning the potential sale of former tree-farm licence land on southwest Vancouver Island and say the province and Western Forest Products are ignoring treaties and aboriginal rights.

"The Crown and WFP have had many chances to work with T'Sou-ke to accommodate our rights and both have failed to do so," said Chief Gordon Planes of T'Sou-ke First Nation.

The band has been in treaty talks for more than a decade, with lack of land a contentious point. Planes can't understand why the province did not put aside land for treaty settlements when the forest company was allowed to pull 12,000 hectares of private land out of TFL 25 in 2007.

"T'Sou-ke is considering its legal and political options, but will not stand aside while the last lands left in our territory are parcelled up and sold off," Planes said.

Concerns about Western Forest Products' decision

to put 2,300 hectares up for sale, including waterfront between Sooke and Jordan River, are also simmering at the Pacheedaht First Nation in Port Renfrew.

"We would like WFP to get a clear understanding that there are cultural interests in those lands," said band manager Dorothy Hunt.

A letter Wednesday from Chief Marvin McClurg to company president Steve Frasher cites a failure to adequately consult.

"We do not, at this time, support the sale or development of any of those lands to third parties," it says.

The government should have acted earlier, Hunt said.

"When it was taken out of the TFL, the province could have stepped in. So many opportunities were missed," she said.

"And I can't see why developers would be interested in getting involved when there's such a huge aboriginal interest."

The letter from McClurg says the band is in discussions to acquire several parcels at Jordan River through treaty negotiations.

"Until these opportunities have been fully realized, we cannot support your company profiting from the sale of these lands," it says.

Pacheedaht and T'Sou-ke are part of the Te'mexw Treaty Association and signed Douglas Treaties, which specify traditional village sites and enclosed fields should be for the use of bands. Signed between 1850 and 1854, the Douglas Treaties cover 927 square kilometres on Vancouver Island.

Jordan River is known as "sthunthunup" or "old home" to the band, Planes said.

"It is really sad to see the sacred sites of our people sold to the highest bidder."

Community and Rural Development Minister Bill Bennett said he believes First Nations are overstating their case.

There was considerable effort to consult with both groups, said Bennett, listing letters and conversations between August 2005 and June 2006.

Bennett noted the land is privately owned and was privately owned when it was in the tree-farm licence. TFL status gives forest companies access to Crown land in the tree-farm licence in return for higher logging standards on their private land.

"This is private land. I am not aware that there are any land claims on private land," he said.

The aim of taking the land out of the TFL was to support the forest industry and save Vancouver Island jobs, Bennett said, adding it would have made no sense to ask the company for compensation for the decades it was given access to Crown timber in the

TFL.

However, Juan de Fuca MLA John Horgan said the province is treating the people of Vancouver Island with contempt. It's not surprising that bands, who were told three years ago no land was available, should be incensed at what's happening, Horgan said.

"The province could have put aside parcels for treaty settlement and still allowed WFP to meet their obligations and they did nothing," he said.

"Now, with every day and week that goes by, the government looks stupider and stupider. .... They could have solved a bunch of problems on the south Island with these lands and they didn't do any of it."

jlavoie@tc.canwest.com