A northern Vancouver Island band has pulled out of an organization designed to streamline consultation between First Nations, government and resource companies.
The Kwakiutl Indian Band has withdrawn from Nanwakolas Council Society, made up of 10 First Nations with territories stretching from Parksville to Knight Inlet. Kwakiutl has also rejected the agreement designed to co-ordinate government-to-government consultation and help with revenue-sharing projects.
“There has been a failure to achieve a government-to-government relationship that respects Kwakiutl title and rights,” said Casey Larochelle, Kwakiutl economic development officer.
The agreement has not stopped large amounts of timber being harvested from Kwakiutl traditional territory and the band does not have sufficient resources to assess applications, Larochelle said.
“There is a tremendous amount of resource value leaving Kwakiutl territory every year,” he said.
Chief Rupert Wilson said there is a presumption of provincial ownership of resources and a failure to recognize Kwakiutl title.
“The [agreement] and the entire apparatus of Nanwakolas have proven far too problematic with respect to consultation, allowing government and industry coffers to grow flush with cash while First Nations continue to grapple with poverty,” he said.
However, Nanwakolas president Dallas Smith said the system is working well for most of the First Nations.
“We never heard about any of these issues from Kwakiutl. It’s quite frustrating,” he said.
“It’s working very well for everyone else or we wouldn’t have signed a three-year agreement.”
The original agreement was signed in 2009 and renewed last December. It is used as a model for other agreements across the province.
It includes $2.26-million to help bands build up expertise and helps fund a dozen Nanwakolas permitting staff in order to shield First Nations from the expense of responding individually to resource-use proposals.
The province has said the one-stop-shop approach is working well for First Nations and resource companies.
However, the Kwakiutl situation is complicated by it being the only Nanwakolas band that is a signatory to a Douglas Treaty, which historically gives land, hunting and fishing rights.
In addition to problems with Nanwakolas, other levels of government are failing to consider those Douglas Treaty rights, Larochelle said.
