A16 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, May 12, 1999

$7M pro-treaty campaign
bolstered by opinion polls —

group, found 58 per cent of those interviewed were in
favovr of holding a referendum on any treaty Signed with

By ROD LINK
THE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT spent nearly $7
million last fall telling people what they wanted to hear
about the Nisga’a treaty.

And the provincial government knew what they wanted
to hear thanks to a series of opinion polls and focus groups
which began in the spring and continued into the fall,"

It was information provided from the polls and focus
groups which formed the blueprint for the fall advertising
and information campaign leading to the introduction of
the irealy into the legislature in December. :

From the first poll onward, the news was good for the
provincial government for there was a strong and’ con-
sistent message from those interviewed to seltle land
claims,

So while supporters and opponents of the treaty battled
on the pages of newspapers and on the airwaves, a key
group of provincial officials built on the messages it was
receiving from the polls that were commissioned.

Central themes such as certainly, progress and fairness
emerged.

These themes were then played back to British Colum-
bians into the fall through advertising and appearances by
politicians and others in support of the treaty.

John Heaney, a véleran of many NDP policy initiatives
who was hired to ren the government’s Nisga’a Treaty Im-
plementation Project team, described the polls and focus
groups as a way of finding out what people thought and
whal worried them.

“People said (hey wanted greater equality. “Well we had
provisions in the trealy which could speak to that,’’ he said
in commenting on the polls and their usage last week.

“If people said they wanted a sense of finality, the
Nisga’a in the trealy said they would not come back at us
for more.’

‘We were able to connect with people the things they
were looking for.’

The pals, ses of which were provided to The Terrace
Standard, indicated there was support for the treaty even
through the most heated exchanges between pro and anti
treaty advocates. ,

That support, even though it did dip at one point in Sep-
tember, demonstrated that peaple were prepared to back
what was negotiated in the treaty, said Heaney.

“In a sense we consider that a victory in some respects,”
he said.

"There was a scnse e of history. The more the treaty was
attacked, the fact that support held is a credit to the
treaty.”

‘We were quite buoyed the treaty held in there.”

What did make Heaney and others a bit nervous was that
a large amount of people who supported the Nisga’a trealy
also wanted a referendum on it. .

One poll, conducted in May 1998 by the Angus Reid

some details

M@ THE NDP commissicned five polls and focus groups
from April 1998 to September 1998 leading into the $7
million fall advertising and pubtic relations campaiga.
Wi The cost of the polls and focus groups was $151,052.
In April, the Angus Reid polling company held focus
groups in Vancouver, the Fraser Vallcy, Prince George and
Terrace at which were discussed parts of the Nisga’a
Agreement-in-Principle (AIP), the core document of the
final Nisga’a treaty.

From those sessions, Angus Reid concluded, ‘Overall,

most people would move Forward to finalize the treaty,

secing it as balance, fair and, despite the hesitation about
the size of the land and financial compensation com-
ponents, little is really objectionable to the point of reject-
_ing the AIP outyight.”’

From May 11 to May 19, Angus Reid conducted a
phone survey of 900 people.

One conclusion reached by Angus Reid on the issue of
holding a referendum, ‘‘While opponents of the treaty will
likey play the populist card, and will get some very
favourable response from the B.C, public, the research
suggests that, when all is said and donc, British Colum-
bians are more susceptible to arguments which focus on
moving forward than on the importance of having a say,
especially if the referendum does not mean something will
gel resolved.”’

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the Nisga’a.

But at the same time, a good number of these people said
not having a referendum wouldn't resull in them opposing

the trealy.

Heaney attributed that to what might be called weariness
by people —- lhe feeling that there has to he progress on

land clajgns.

“Ther was a scnse of getting On with. it. ie $ time lo do

il,” he said,

“For those of us on the inside, and this ‘may sound
idealistic, if this was a high water mark in our history of
making progress here, it. was our resnonsibility to do the

right thing,’? Heaney added.

One. of the high points for the government during the
treaty debate last fall came Dec. 2 when the province flew
down 200 Nisga’a at a cost of $100,000 for the opening of
the legislature and the introduction of the bill to ratify the

trea caly.

“For those of us on the inside, and this
may sound idealistic, if this was a high
water mark in our history of making prog-
ress here, it was our responsibility to do

the right thing.”

“The weekend before, Nov. 30, the government caucus
had a poll done and it showed 55 per cent support straight
up and a dozen undecided. Tak: out the undecided and
you’re left with a greater than 60 per cent outright majority

support,’’ said Heaney.

Even though poling data showed treaty support held
firm from the spring into the fall; Heaney defended the
amount of money that was spent. _

‘*What the numbers told us that we had a chance of con-
verting British Columbians’ inate sense of the need to
make progress, to setile old problems — to convert that to
the specifics in a treaty form,”’ be said.

At the same lime, Heancy said the province wanted to
make sure people knew about and understood there were
other treatics to be signed and that the one with the Nisga’a

set the table for the rest.

With the Nisga’a treaty now passed by the provincial
legislature through the use of closure and the document
now waiting for federal ratification, the work of the imple-
mentation team has ali but wound down. Heaney has gone
to another job as head of NDP caucus communications,

So has the province commissioned a poll on the Nisga’a
treaty this spring? ‘‘There’s no practical reason for that,”’

Heaney replied.

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