Native consulting fees alarm cities
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Local cities fear they'll be effectively held to ransom if a North Shore aboriginal band succeeds in making them pay consultation fees for any proposed development in a 413,000-hectare area spanning Metro Vancouver.
The Tsleil Waututh Nation (TWN), also known as the Burrard band, has circulated a "Stewardship Policy" under which it intends to levy various fees on any projects within the defined area.
The 447-member band says local governments must pay the fees as part of their duty to consult and accommodate native bands or else run the risk of illegally infringing First Nation interests and facing court action.
"Everyone I've talked to in local government is absolutely aghast at this," said Belcarra Mayor Ralph Drew, who chairs the Lower Mainland Treaty Advisory Committee (LMTAC). "There's a huge degree of angst and rightly so."
He said regional leaders were left "with their jaws hanging open" Wednesday after hearing band representatives lay out the policy, which could spell big delays for construction projects, add a new layer of costs and leave the band with a veto power that trumps local and regional plans.
The Tsleil Waututh had previously defined their traditional territory for the purposes of treaty negotiations as being the North Shore, Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster and most of the Tri Cities – an area of 179,000 hectares.
But the new stewardship policy sets out an area more than twice as large as what would be subject to TWN consultations and fees.
The zone includes the traditional territory, but adds all of Richmond, Delta, South Surrey, White Rock and southern Langley. Also included is a corridor of waterfront land along the Fraser River as far upstream as Maple Ridge and Fort Langley. It also takes in Bowen Island and the Sea-to-Sky Corridor.
The TWN fees (which are subject to change) include:
• A $250 set-up fee.
• $200-$400 application fees for Cultural Heritage Investigation Permits.
• Rates of $50 to $100 per hour to reimburse TWN for time spent by their staff technicians, mappers and managers.
• Recovery of any additional costs if the band hires outside technical or professional firms, along with their travel expenses, and an extra 12 per cent added for administration.
LMTAC has asked the province whether local cities must abide by the policy and pay its fees and what will happen if they don't.
The country's high courts have found the Crown – federal and provincial governments – have a duty to consult and accommodate natives when aboriginal interests may be infringed.
But local bands take the position that municipal governments are an extension of the Crown and the same rules apply.
Even so, enforcing payment of fees would be a first.
While the Tsleil Waututh are the first band to unveil such a policy, Drew believes others could follow.
"Once other First Nations figure out this is an opportunity to create a cash cow, they will all be saying 'me too'," he said. "Local governments won't be dealing with one at their door. They'll have six saying, 'We deserve the same treatment'."
It's unclear what would happen if different aboriginal groups took opposing positions on the merits of a project.
"They have overlapping and conflicting territories," Drew said. "Many have made it very clear others will not speak for them."
Exactly what type of development would trigger the stewardship policy is also unclear.
"It's a work in progress," said Tsleil Waututh policy adviser Chris Knight.
"Tsleil Waututh isn't interested in holding up somebody's building permit or the extension of somebody's deck," he said.
But Knight said the band would likely want to study anything that disturbs the soil in areas of high cultural or archaelogical importance or important foreshore or environmentally sensitive areas.
Knight said it's a serious challenge for the band to keep pace with proposals in its area of interest – it already gets 800 referrals a year from various project proponents but can't afford to properly analyze them with its existing funding.
He said the fees are to recover costs, not become a "profit centre."
Knight said some agencies have already begun to pay the TWN fees, but he wouldn't identify them or the types of projects involved.
"This is something that is understood if not welcomed by the private sector," he said. "They understand there are costs associated with project approvals."
B.C. Business Council economist Jock Finlayson agreed companies – particularly those trying to work on Crown land in much of rural B.C. – sometimes agree to provide area bands jobs and cash to secure support.
"It's far less common to see that in the urban environment," he said, adding there's no clear precedent allowing a band to charge fees.
He said the province's recent proposal – now shelved – to legally recognize aboriginal title could have provided more ammunition for native groups to make that case.
Metro Vancouver officials also fear civic-owned lands, including regional parks, will ultimately be handed over to native bands to secure treaties or reconciliation agreements.
The province last year expropriated a 22-hectare portion of Metro-owned Pacific Spirit Regional Park and transferred it to the Musqueam band to settle a land dispute.
Metro is challenging the transfer in court.
The threat of aboriginal court action also thwarted Metro Vancouver's original plan to build a new landfill near Ashcroft, throwing waste management plans into disarray.
Water line project frozen by fee demand
A $6-million project to build a new drinking water line under Burrard Inlet to serve Belcarra is being held up by a local native band's demand for consulting fees.
And it may be just the first of potentially a range of Lower Mainland projects that could be frozen by aboriginal entanglements, despite an urgent drive by Ottawa to ramp up infrastructure work and help dig the economy out of recession.
"This is a shovel-ready project," said Belcarra Mayor Ralph Drew. "We could be working on it this summer."
The Village of Belcarra paid the initial $250 application fee sought by the Tsleil Waututh Nation (TWN) under its newly unveiled stewardship policy that aims to recover the costs of assessing projects that could impact its aboriginal interests.
The village was then presented an estimate of $34,000 for the total costs the band said its assessment would entail.
"They said, 'By the way, this is just an estimate. It could be more'," Drew said.
His council has written back asking for clarification.
Meanwhile, Drew said it's unclear when the project can proceed – even though the federal and provincial governments announced grants to cover two-thirds of the water project costs more than a year ago.
Belcarra had kept the Tsleil Waututh informed of the village's plans throughout the process of applying for the grant and after it was approved, he said.
Last April the band told Belcarra it wouldn't examine the water line plans because it deals only government-to-government.
Drew informed federal officials at the Western economic diversification department in charge of the grant.
"The feds said, 'No, we delegated this to you. Go and talk to them'. So we continued to make more efforts to communicate."
Belcarra continued in good faith to seek meetings with the TWN over the water line through the rest of 2008 and "basically got nowhere" until the band presented its new policy of charging fees early this year.
The village has asked Conservative MP James Moore for help but the grant funding from Ottawa still hasn't been released.
"We're caught between a rock and a hard place," Drew said. "How do we move forward with our infrastructure project?"
He said it's impossible to tell how many other projects in the Lower Mainland could end up similarly entangled if the band's policy becomes a precedent.
jnagel@surryleader.com
© Copyright 2007 Surrey North Delta Leader