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Friday, February 22, 1991 — North Shore News - 7

“GUEST COLUMNIST ©

Plenty of land to share

THE SUPREME Court of Canada has ruled that
aboriginal rights are protected by the new Constitution, so
there is no way, really, for Canada to wiggle out of it.
There have to be nation to nation settlements.

The settlements will likely be
tripartite treaties among Canada,
the provinces, and the first na-
tions. Such a tripartite agreement
could be consistent with the Con-
stitution and with the Royal Proc-
lamation of 1763 precluding a
transfer of native tand without
native consent.

Outside the few treaties on
Vancouver Island, in most of B.C.
there were no treaties, so every
square inch is on the negotiating
table. The Squamish people never
surrendered their lands which
reach from Indian Arm to Sechelt,
and from the water to the foot-
hills of Mt. Garibaldi. The
Squamish are part of the larger
Coast Salish nation that has
claims throughout Greater Van-
couver, the Blair Range, Seymour,
and Indian River Valley.

All three proposed new highway
routes to Squamish pass through
Indian land claims, and it is very
unlikely that any of these routes
could now be approved without

native consent. The favored route
is along Indian Arm and through
the Indian River Valley.

Even the colonial names ac-
knowledge that these places were
Indian lands at the time of the
first British settlers.

“We have to be realistic and
fair to all Canadians,’’ says Chief
Leonard George of the Burrard
Band. ‘‘The fee-simple land is
gone. We're asking that native
land held by the Crown be return-
ed, and that we receive just com-
pensation for land that we have
given up.”

According to George, a fair
land settlement will not be a
burden to Canada. ‘It will be
healthy,” he says, for Indian na-
tions to control theiz own land
and resources. ‘‘Current federal
Indian programs are inefficient,
because they are administered
from Ottawa, and the bureaucracy
itself spends most of the money.
The government is spending mil-
lions of dollars not dealing with

Rex
Weyler

THE GOOD EARTH

the issue. They’ve spent millions
already for police and army at
Oka rather than dealing with the
issues the people are raising. That
is why you have such frustra-
tion.”

The settlement that affects the
north shore of Burrard Inlet will
likely be a settlement with the
larger Coast Salish nation that in-
cludes, in addition to the Burrard

MAILBOX

“WANT TO EMPHASIZE,
THAT ATA COST OF 1,000
VOTES, THAT THIS 1S
ONLY A PRELIMINARY

DRAFT BUDGET... °

Community won't accept budget

taxes right after the last ‘gouge
and screw’’ taxation we just went
through.

Let’s put it all on the table — a
22 per cent tax increase is not only

Open fetter to North Vancouver
District Council:

This letter is on behalf of my
fellow citizens and taxpayers in
the District of North Vancouver.

Alderman Ernie Crist has just
made a media statement — (class-
ed by the North Shore News as a
Quote of the Week) — that he
was presenting a bylaw budget
and that taxes would be raised 22
per cent in the district.

He further stated, by innuendo,
that this budget was in direct
response to senior governments’

failure to meet their commitments.
Local governments, particularly
newly elected governments, should
not use innuendo when they say
something and mean something
else.

Now Alderman Crist gets the
largest vote on council, therefore
he can appear to be the ‘“‘tough
guy’’, ready to take it on the chin
come next election, and still be
assured of an ‘‘in’’ because of the
liberals who vote in such elections
— but innuendo is not the way to
tell your electorate that they are
about to be stabbed with more

unacceptable to a community
which has a lot of people hurting
right now — it will not be ac-
cepted!

And tell us outright — no innu-
endo which government is
responsible for this ridiculous in-
crease?

Geoff Fenton
North Vancouver

and Squamish people, the Co-
quitiam, Katzie, Musqueam,
Semiahmoo, and Tsawwassen.

“The Coast Salish are working
together,’’ says George. ‘‘Before
contact we shared, and never
hindered ourselves with bound-
aries.

‘People shouldn’t be afraid of
native land claims. Look back in
history. The Indian people have
always been generous. Before you
fight you should take a step back
and look, and listen. Everyone
will win with a fair settlement,
because we will take care of the
land.”

The terms of a tripartite agree-
ment between the Indian nations,
the provinces, and Canada would
likely be a vast document, but the
concept is simple: the native na-
tions would have some measure of
autonomy to administer their own
Jands and resources. This might be
a relief and a welcome change for
Canada. There are many possible
advantages. For one, the Indians
might do a better job of maintain-
ing the environmental integrity of
their land.

Absentee administration is
perhaps the greatest single cause

of environmentally insensitive de-
velopment.

Secondly, it would be much eas-
ier for other B.C. interests to deal
directly with B.C. natives than to
deal through Ottawa, 4,000
kilometres away. Would it not be
easier, and much more pleasant,
and much more sensible, if one
had business with native nations,
to phone Leonard George, or Joe
Mathias, or Ruby Dunston, rather
than Brian Mulroney?

One of the central problems in
Canada is that it is simply too big
to administer from one place. The
whole world is moving toward
more bioregional, community
government, so the tripartite trea-
ty would be in step with this.

The people of Canada, in-
cluding those along the north
shore of Burrard Inlet, must even-
tually recognize and accept that
tremendous changes are coming,
from the aboriginal land claims.

But these changes need not stir
up fear and resentment. Canada is
huge. We have the largest land
base per capita of any nation in
the world. There is enough land to
share with all, including the
aboriginal inhabitants.

Crist clarifies
district budget

Municipal load

Dear Editor:

What I really said when I in-
troduced the provisional budget at
North Vancouver District Council
is that what we have at this mo-
ment is a draft budget, not the
final budget to be presented in

May.

But I also stated that it is dif-
ficult to keep taxes down when
senior levels of government are
racing each other to shift their
responsibilities onto our
shoulders, without giving us the
means to deal with them.

Municipal responsibilities used
to be water, sewers, police and
fire protection, roads, parks, traf-
fic, waste removal and libraries.
Now we are also expected to deal
with housing, childcare, mass
transportation and a host of social
issues, not to speak of the en-
vironment.

And all virtually for the same
price per average household as it
costs to insure a single car.

That should teil you just how
warped our priorities have become
and how ignorant some sections
of the media are about the real
world at the municipal level.

Instead of helping us they are
raising red herrings such as Coun-
cil indemnities amounting to $3
per hour.

So what is the solution? Is it to
make cuts, keep quiet and reduce
hard-won standards?

You can’t run a modern, in-
terdependent industrial society
without providing adequate ser-
vices.

The problem is not that the
costs for services needed to hold

getting heavier

the municipal frontline are too
high. The problem is that the
senior governments are running,
dumping their responsibility and
Jeaving us to hold the bag.

Provincial grants are less today
than they were 10 years ago. But
the provincial budget has more
than doubled during that period,
not to mention inflation. The fed-
eral governnyent used to pay 20
per cent of police costs — now
they are paying 10 per cent and
crime is increasing.

It used to cost the District of
North Vancouver $4 to collect and
dispose of a ton of household
waste. Now the cost, including the
blue box program, is $250 per
ton.

Instead of getting paid for the
valuable blue box material, we
have to pay to have it hauled
away. But both the provincial and
federal governments refuse to
legistate manufacturers to re-use
the material which would change
this and bring in some money.
They are protecting their friends
in the packaging and resource in-
dustry instead.

Maybe municipalities could
have some of the money the fed-
eral government is spending on
the Gulf War protecting American
oil interests. Or maybe Victoria
could be persuaded to pay as
much te North Vancouver for
health costs as they do to other
municipalities, or at least pay fair
market value for school sites in-
stead of short-changing us.

It would sure help.

Ernie Crist
Alderman
District of North Vanzouver