Squar

SOLVING native land
claims is a tough rack-
et.

Just ask members of the
North Shore’s Squamish
band.

__ From the outside looking
in, the band appears to be
engaged in a progressive push
to secure economic indepen-
dence for its 3,000 people
and 24 reserves, but from the
inside looking out, it is any-
thing but progressive.

While the band’s land
claims settlement with the
province winds its way
through the byzantine
machinery of the modern
native treaty industry, its
membership is having a few
Jand claims issues of its own
with the band itself.

Recent News stories by
reporter Deana Lancaster
have, for example, shed light
on the complications faced by
rank and file Squamish in try-
ing to secure rights to band
property in what remains
largely a feudal social system.
The issue has been exacer-
bated by the passage of Bill
: . ©-49 (the First Nations Land

_ Management Act), details of
which have been discussed in
' previous Ripping Yarns. _

As a thumbnail summary,
the legislation provides the
Squamish and 13 other native

~bands across Canada with the
power to cortrol their land
; and its development without

interference from Ottawa.
The bill in effect gives the
bands fee simple ownership
of their current reserve prop-
erties.

And for the Squamish
those properties have huge
dollar value: its current 800-
acre land bank is worth an
estimated $1 billion.

But in order for the Bill
C-49 legislation to work for
the benefit of all band mem-
bers, its land code, which lays
out the blueprint for band
land development, requires
input from its entire mem-
bership.

The trouble is there’s not
a whole lot of inputting
going on down on the
reserve. Instead a whole lot
of band resource and land
issues ave consequently been
coming to a rolling boil of
late.

' Other significant flaws in
the Bill C-49 tegislation
revolve around the property
rights of native women,
which remain almost non-

existent, and the absence of

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any requirement that bands
notify their non-native neigh-
bours of land development
plans.

Basic to all three issues is
band communication — both
on reserve from band chief
and council to band members
and off reserve from the band
to its non-Squamish neigh-
bours.

From the outside looking
in, that communication is
limited at best, and from the
inside looking out, it doesn’t
appear to be much better.

In his Bill C-49 presenta-
tion to the Senate last
December, Squamish Nation
director of finance Harold
Calla said bands can only
achieve self-sufficiency “with
the input of First Nations
themselves.”

And that’s what Squamish
members have begun to raise
their voices about: input;
consultation; open discussion;
transparency; fairness; democ-
ratic involvement — all
appear to de in short supply
at Squamish HQ.

As chronicled in a Nov, 24
News story, for example, 300
band members attended a
mecting at the local Eagles
Hall seeking information on
how the band spends its $32
million annual budget.

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The meeting followed rev-
elations that 24 band mem-
bers had signed a petition
lobbying Ortawa for an inves-

” tigation into Squamish

spending practices.

But band manager Glen
Newman told the full house
that financial details were nor
available.

Thanks for the help.

How about Ortawa?
According to the Canadian
Taxpayers Federation, the
federal government has
increased its funding to the
Department of Indian and
Northern Affairs by 47%,
from $1.8 billion to $2.7 bil-
lion, since the 1992-93 fiscal
year. It’s bound to know
where that money goes and
what it’s used for.

Sorry.

Wendy Lockhart-
Lundberg, a Squamish band
member who lives in
Richmond, has tried that
tack.

See Questions page 9

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