Canada seeks reform to land claims

Faced with a seemingly immovable object - First Nations resistance to resource projects, notably crude pipelines - the Canadian government is seeking an answer, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt has disclosed.

He said efforts are under way to overhaul procedures for negotiating land claims treaties and speed up talks involving governments and First Nations, especially in British Columbia.

Valcourt said it is “ridiculous” that settlements of such claims now take 20 to 25 years. His department is collecting the views of aboriginal leaders on the first changes in almost three decades to the negotiating policy, including changes that would give officials the ability to reach short-term deals of resource-revenue sharing and other options when land-claims settlements appear unlikely.

The pressure on the administration of Prime Minister Stephen Harper is extreme given that C$650 billion of capital spending over the next decade is at stake.

Currently about 70 land-claims agreements have been completed, but another 100 remain unsettled, most of them in British Columbia.

Valcourt said the First Nations are positioned to benefit from substantial resource development that would benefit the economies of Canada, the provinces and aboriginal communities, but added it “takes two to tango.”

If anything, the various parties are drifting further apart as First Nations set aside negotiations to pursue lawsuits.

They have been emboldened by a Supreme Court of Canada ruling in June granting First Nations in British Columbia legal title to traditional lands regardless of how intensively the aboriginal communities use them.

The Assembly of First Nations, representing more than 900,000 people from 634 First Nations, views the landmark decision as a breakthrough that forces governments to take aboriginal land title seriously.

But Valcourt argues that the best way to resolve aboriginal rights and title claims is “through a negotiated process” by applying the principles contained in the court ruling, which he credits with laying out the conditions that must be met to support a declaration of aboriginal title.

- Gary Park