Bob Mackin
Pender Harbour residents say they were not consulted or even advised of a new agreement reached last year with the Shishalh Nation.
The NDP government waited until Jan. 29 to announce the 2024 renewal of the 2018 “landmark reconciliation agreement.” It includes $79 million in payments over five years for economic development, cultural and environmental programs. The deal will also identify and transfer other lands to the Shishalh for cultural and economic use.
Pender Harbour (Destination BC/Albert Normandin)
In 1999, back when it was known as the Sechelt Indian Band, Shishalh reached an agreement-in-principle under the federal/provincial B.C. Treaty Commission process. However, it rejected the $42 million in cash and land package a year later.
In a Feb. 19 letter to Premier David Eby, Pender Harbour and Area Residents Association demanded to know why the agreement was not released before the Oct. 19 election and whether the successful NDP candidate for the Sunshine Coast, Randene Neill, was aware. After the election, Eby named Neill the Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship.
First Nations land use was a sleeper issue of last fall’s election. At one of Eby’s last news pre-election news conferences, he was asked about a document that the Conservatives suggested would give First Nations the power to make Land Act decisions and for the minister responsible to supersede individual land rights.
“No, not at all,” said Eby, who called it a conspiracy theory.
Eby later conceded: “We need certainty. We need agreements. We need partnership.”
Retired government lawyer Geoffrey Moyse, who advised six B.C. governments on aboriginal land use, was a guest on theBreaker.news podcast during the final week of the election. He said he expected a re-elected Eby government would proceed with settlements and management deals that were paused or cancelled before the election.
Eby also appointed Christine Boyle to his post-election cabinet as the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation. During her time on Vancouver city council, Boyle was an advocate of the “land back” restitution movement.
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