COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • JULY 2019
Treaties create uncertainty for range users Ranchers face challenges as nine First Nations approach settlements
by TOM WALKER WILLIAMS LAKE—With nine
First Nations at the fifth and final stage of the province’s treaty process, ranchers are curious about how the outcome could affect their operations. Attendees at the BC
Cattlemen’s Association’s annual general meeting in Williams Lake at the end of May were given an explanation of the BC treaty process by two representatives of the Northern Shuswap Tribal Council representing four communities of the Northern Secwepemc te Qelmucw (NStQ). Kenneth Bateman is the chief negotiator for the NStQ and Gord Keener is an area rancher and a treaty manager and member of the Xat’sūll-Cm’etem (Soda-Deep Creek) community. NStQ nation includes four bands: Stswecem’c-Xgat’tem (Canoe Creek/Dog Creek), T’exelc (Williams Lake), Tsq’escen’ (Canim Lake) and Xat’sūll-Cm’etem (Soda Creek). There are two land descriptions within the treaty process. Traditional territory is land a First Nation has identified as the area which they and/or their ancestors traditionally occupied or used. Treaty settlement lands is land that will be owned and managed by the First Nation under treaty. First Nations in the midst of
the BC treaty process have submitted a statement of intent outlining their traditional territory. This establishes the parameters for land to be included in a final treaty. For most First Nations, treaty settlement lands will likely comprise only a percentage of their traditional territory. NStQ’s traditional territory
covers a diagonal swath across the central Cariboo. The northeast boundary begins at the Fraser River headwaters and stretches from Valemount through McBride and north to the Robson Valley. The northern edge runs southwest through Wells, crossing the Fraser River between Quesnel and
Williams Lake and coming close to Alexis Creek. The western border runs south through Hanceville and the Empire Valley, till it touches Carpenter Lake. The southern edge runs just north of Lillooet and northeast up to Clearwater and back to Valemount. “At 6.5 million hectares, this NStQ traditional territory is fairly large,” admits Keener. Given its location, this could be a pivotal area for BC ranchers. NStQ are currently asking for 82,000 acres of treaty settlement land within this traditional territory. Ownership of treaty
settlement lands and the right to make laws concerning the use of those lands are the most important parts of a treaty. Crown land owned by either the provincial or federal government is generally the only land used for treaty settlements. Therefore, existing ranches and all other private property will continue as such, with guaranteed access. Provincial roads and highways are excluded from a treaty settlement.
Settlement lands
The treaty will clearly set out the amount of settlement lands included in the treaty, as well as the scope of the First Nation government's law- making powers on those lands. Some of the 30 items to be included are culture and heritage, education, justice, health, taxation, water, subsurface rights and forest and range. The crux for the Cariboo is the amount of Crown land that is under tenure and may be included in treaty settlement lands. “Eighty per cent of the landbase we are talking about has some sort of grazing licence or tenure on it,” notes Keener. “So we have to work on that as a separate issue and deal with forestry separately as well.” For now, Keener says existing tenures will remain but they’re not guaranteed in the future. “The terms of existing
tenures will continue, unchanged, until the end of
25
NStQ nation traditional (pink) and proposed settlement (red) territories.
the tenure term,” says Keener. “The treaty negotiating parties have not yet addressed the manner in which ongoing or future tenures will be managed.” While First Nations will be
very much involved in what takes place on their wider- reaching traditional territories, Keener says that the legal tenure agreements that ranchers, loggers and recreation outfitters have with the Crown will remain and continue. However, First Nations will have input into future applications. NStQ and the province are negotiating a joint resources management model that will oversee development of new tenures on traditional territory. “We will have shared decision-making with the province over resource development throughout the traditional territory,” says Keener. “We have a government-to-government agreement with the province now on information sharing so we are at a higher level. We are not a stakeholder but a party to the resource decisions.”
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and federal laws will govern any environmental activities within territories, Keener would not be definitive about respecting the ALR. “This matter will, but has
not yet, been negotiated,” he says. “It will arise at a later point in the treaty process.” Bateman spoke about cooperation. “We would like to work together with you to expand and strengthen the ranching community,” he says. “One of our objectives here today is to better understand what does working effectively together with the BC Cattlemen’s Association look like.”
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Huffman echoed NStQ’s
desire to work with the treaty process. “There has been and will continue to be a need for interdependency that began when the first settlers moved into the Cariboo region,” he says, but added a note of realism. “It will be rural and
resource-based economies that will be impacted. … Land and resources will be the currency,” says Huffman, speaking with a heavy voice to a silent audience. “If there are changes, there must be alternatives developed. Where are those who are excluded going to go?”
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