ON Rea NE ee

see A A OT EE PA AR

PROPERTY POLICY IN REVIEW

Squamish band closer to land claims

IF TASK force recommendations reviewing the federal
government’s comprehensive claims policy are accepted, the
Squamish Indian Band will be able to submit a land claim

for the first time.

The Squamish band claims ter-
titorial title to all of the North
Shore up to Pemberton Valley, all
of Squamish Valley, Howe Sound
and Vancouver.

Squamish band Chief Joe
Mathias served on the five-member
task force, which officially releas-
ed its 132-page report on Canadian
Indian land claims Wednesday.

Contacted in Ottawa, the North
Vancouver aboriginal leader said
the committee’s objective was to
provide the federal government
with a clear policy to allow native
land claim negotiations to proceed.

JOB DONE

“We've done our job and im-
proved policy, now it’s in the
hands of the Minister of Indian
(and Northern) Affairs,’’ Mathias
said. ‘‘He’s got to bring it before

EMBERTON

Reporter

his cabinet and hopefully the
report will become official poli-
cy.””

Mathias said he is optimistic the
government will implement the
report's recommendations.

He said the new policy would
mean the majority of aboriginal
groups in the Lower Mainland,
which continue to occupy tradi-
tional lands and whose aboriginal
title was not extinguished by
“treaty or explici: legislation,”
would be eligible to apply to nego-
tiate their comprehensive land
claims with the federal governm-
ent.

Mathias said currently the
Squamish band is not entitled to

WORKER UNCERTIFIED

Parents protest

daycare

transfer

PARENTS with children attending.the Esther Bell Day Care
Centre plan to present a petition today to the centre’s
management, protesting the transfer of a childcare worker.

Supervisor Gloria Sanchez has
worked at the centre, operated by
North Shore Neighbourhood
House (NSNH), for the past eight
years,

But a NSNH policy change in
the spring of 1985 requires her to
have a certificate to work with
children under the age of three.

Sanchez will be transferred at
the end of this month to NSNH
Day Care Centre, wher2 the
children are three to five years old.

Lynn Phillips, a mother of a
four year old at Esther Bell centre,
said 24 parents have signed the
petition.

There are 19 students, aged two
to four, registered at the centre.

FULLY QUALIFIED

“*As far as we're concerned Mrs.
Sanciiez is fully qualified to teach
our kids,”’ Phillips said. ‘‘My son
is there four days a week and he

.. just. loves her.— she’s_a_warm-__.

hearted, lovely soul.

‘*(Management) has valid
reasons for what they're doing, but
I think it would be better to let her
stay,’’ she said.

Phillips said the centre has had
to replace several staff members
with substitute childcare workers

Weather:

Mainly cloudy Friday and
Saturday with sunny
periods Friday afternoon.
Highs near 11°C.

By KIM PEMBERTON
News Reporter

since September due to illness, and
the transfer will only mean another
disruption for the children.

Doug Sabourin, executive direc-
tor at NSNH, said the centre of-
fered Sanchez the opportunity to
remain at Esther Bell if she
upgraded her childcare skills. And
he said NSNH agreed to pay half
of her course fees.

TOO DIFFICULT

Sanchez said she began the
Under Three training course in
September, but quit in January
because it was difficult to work
full-time and attend classes.

She said it was also very expen-
sive to take the required eight
courses, costing anywhere from
$60 to $80 each.

__Sabourin_ said he would_ prefer
that Sanchez remain at Esther Bell,
but it is out of his hands.

He said the day care’s licensing
requirements ter childcare workers
are decided by the Community

Care Licensing Board of the B.C.
Health Department.

Business

Deug Collins.
Classified Ads
Editorial Page
Lifestyles & TV
Mailbox

Real Estate
Table Hopping
What's Going Cn

apply because of “third party in-
terests,’’ such as those of
homeowners, businesses and in-
dustry in the Indians* traditional
territory.

ARBITRARY DECISION

“With (the current federal poli-
cy) you’re arbitrarily deciding who
has a claim and who doesn’t. That
was one of the problems the task
force uncovered — there was no
clear cut policy on who would be
eligible,"’ Mathias said.

“The application of third party
interests in B.C. was inconsistent.
The Nishgas have third party in-
terests within their territory and
their title was accepted, but why
was the Musqueam band rejected
because of third party interests?”’
he asked.

Fourteen comprehensive land
claims have been accepted from
B.C. tribal groups, primarily from
the north, but the current policy
allows only one claim to be pur-
sued at one time in B.C.

The Nishga is the only B.C.
aboriginal group in negotiation
with the federal government, and
has been since 1973 when the fed-
eral government first announced
its current comprehensive land
claim policy.

SAME CLAIMS

The report recommends the
number of claims to be negotiated
at one time across Canada be in-
creased and it suggested a
‘‘framework agreement’’ for
negotiations which would establish
a schedule for their completion.

North Vancouver/Burnaby MP
Chuck Cook said he is in general
agreement with the report’s rec-
ommendations.

“Anything thet gives them (the
aboriginal groups) more autonomy
{'m all fos it," Cook — said,
‘‘because they're capable of doing
it — managing their own affairs.

“Vm also for enything that will
cut down the size of the Depart-
ment of Indian Affairs and give

3 - Friday, March 21, 1986 - North Shore-News

ae.

SQUAMISH Band Chief Joe
Mathias...currently band is not en-
titled to comprehensive land claims
because of ‘third party’ interests.

the Indians more control. The DIA
hasn’t done that good a job,’ he
said.

FEDERAL ONUS

Cook said the main problem
with settling comprehensive tand
claims is the federal government’s
insistence that the provincial gov-
ernment must participate in claims
talks and share in the costs.

“ET don’t think the people of

B.C. have any responsibility to pay
for all of this,” he said.

cs
NEWS photo Jarry Peters

THE COMPLEX metal vertabrae of the Second Narrows Bridge are distinctly visible in this photo shot with

a 400 millimetre lens.

CYPRESS BOWL CONTROVERSY

SSAVE CYPRESS Bow! Committee (SCBC) members don’t

~~ care who pays for their skiing a: long as it is somebody else:

So says Cypress Bowl Recre-
ations Ltd. (CBRL) general man-
ager Wayne Booth.

Booth said his company’s side of
the battle over free access to
Cypress Provincial Park has been
lost in the general smoke and
uproar of recent demonstration
and confrontation over the issue.

SCBC protests, which climaxed
with the arrest of committee
spokesman John Beltz at a March
I ski-in staged on Cypress Moun-
tain, have centred over what Beltz
maintains is CBRL’s denial of the
public right to free wilderness ac-
cess within the Class A provincial
park.

BREACH OF CODE

CBRL policy that all cro«s-
country skiers pay a fee to use
groomed downhill runs and track-
ed cross-country trails, even if that
use is only to get to back-country
park areas, is a breach of both the
provincial Parks Act and the crim-
inal code, according to Beltz and
other SCBC members.

But Booth said the SCBC is real-
ly protesting “the whole concept
of fee for service. | mean, that’s
not back-country up there
anymore, maybe it was 50 years

By TIMOTHY RENSHAW
ews Reporter

ago, but when you drive up a
three-lane highway to it, you can
hardly cail that back-country.””

mh Ey
CYPRESS Bow! Recreations Ltd.
manager Wayne Booth...SCRC a
group of freeloaders, not nature
lovers.

The SCBC, Booth said, does not
understand the amount of respon-
sibility assumed by his company
after it signed the November, 1984
park-use permit with the provincial
government that privatized the
Cypress Bowl ski facilities.

300th bares company's argument

He said the 50-year agreement

—~~—required-CBRL..to-purchase-all-ski

lifts, buildings, road and snow
removal equipment.

Responsibility for maintaining
the park’s electrical, sewage and
fresh water systems had all been
inherited by CBRL, Booth said.

SEWAGE TRUCKED

Sewage alone, he said, had to be
trucked 50 kilometres every week
to Richmond’s [ona sewage treat-
ment plant because park facilities
were not hooked up to local sewer
systems.

Booth listed a wide range of
other services his company is re-
quired to perform, from maintain-
ing a First Aid Station and ski
patrol to doing avalanche control
within the park.

Booth said the province and
other levels of government have
received ‘‘between $100,000 and
$125,000 a year in various fees and
taxes that would otherwise not
have been paid, in addition to
$500,000 at the start of the lease.”

And Booth estimated net annual
savings to the public to be between
$250,000 and $350,000 since the
Cypress privatization,

His company, he said, has in-
vested $1.5 million in improve-
See Booth
Fage 10