Kitselas multi-use facility
to improve band services — |

.A$1.4 MILLION multi-use
facility at the Kitselas

band’s Gitaus subdivision |

18km east of Terrace on
Hwy 16 is well underway.
Ill provide more space
for health services for band
members, be used as a

community centre and te- .

lieve pressure on the

band’s current administra- ,

“tive building at its Kulspai
subdivision on Queensway.

"The Kitselas band
. council wanted improved.
‘working conditions
health services,” said Ste-
yen Roberts, Kitselas band
manager.

“Right now we have

two pecple working in
what looks like a closet,”
he said, :

Roberts said existing
‘staff from the Kulspai ad-
ministrative building will
be moved to the new of-
fices, freeing space for
outside business rental in
the old offices.

Northwest construction
company Wayne Watson
_ Construction has the con-
tract for the new building,
which has a footprint of

_ nearly 4,000 square feet. .
Building plans include:

five administrative offices, .
several offices for nursing
care and examination,
rooms for visiting health
representatives as well as
practitioners including the
possibility of visiting dent-
ists and eye doctors.

for ,,

WAYNE WATSON Construction employees work on a new health facility being
bullt at the Gitaus subdivision which should be complete by November.

“This certainly makes it
easier for our staff to pro-
vide health services,” Ro-
berts said,

The services will be
provided free of charge to
Kitselas band members,
according to Roberts.

Money for the building
comes from the federal
health department, Indian
and Northern Affairs and
the band itself.

The new building will
also have a dual-level
community hall for gather-
ings as well as a kitchen.

The Aboriginal Head
Start program for pre-
school students may also
be run out of the building.
Other programs will be in-
cluded for those with men-
tal health needs as well as
those overcoming drug and
alcohol abuse.

Sixteen new housing

units are also being built
at Gitaus, including a four-
plex which is nearly fin-
ished.

Roberts said there is a
wait list of more than 50
individuals who want

homes built at the Kitselas
subdivision,

Roberts said the hous-
ing units are good news for
the Kitselas band,

“We haven't had any
funding for the laste 10
years,” he said.

He also said the hall

‘project is providing 19

jobs.

The multi-use facility
has a November finishing
date planned, but Roberts
said construction is ahead
of schedule.

Gitanyow upset over Nisga’a
fish nets on the Nass River

A GITANYOW claim that

‘ Nisga’a people are fishing :

in the former's territorial
waters is straining their al-
ready tense treaty negotia-

tions with B.C, and Cana-

da,

“Qn July 13, some Nis-

ndjelQanets in, the..N;

ae

, fa et up between six

River.near Gingoix, erTi-
tory the Gitanyow claim is

theirs, said Gitanyow trea- -

ly manager Vicki Russell.

She said that when the
Nisga’a treaty was being
negotiated, the Gitanyow
went to the Supreme Court.
to have a clause inserted:
that states it can not in-
fringe on the rights of any
other First Nation.

But despite that clause,
the provincial and federal
governments did violate
the Gitanyow’s rights by
awarding the Gingaix fish-
ery.to the Nisga’a, and
. how are not taking respon-

sibility for their actions,

Russell said.

“What makes it so diffi-

_ cult is both levels of gov-
_ernments saying it is
.. something we are going to
“have to deal with our-
selves — the Gilanyow and

the Nisga’a ~ and yet the

{provincial and federal
".governments] are the ones

“.* that created the problem,”

she said.

An abeyance agreement
that kept the issue out of
the courts for three years

_ expired on June 6. The Gi-

tanyow sent B.C, a docu-

ment dated June 5 that
lays out a series of steps
they want to see happen
before they sign another
- abeyance agreement, said

~~: Russell,

The Gitanyow have yet
to see a response to that

‘document, she said, but

provincial negotiator Lyle
Viereck said the province
-has put together a proposal
of their own in response.
“It's part of the broader
“discussion about what hap-
‘pens..with the litigation,”
“he-said, adding the prov-
ince does not want lo con-
tinue ‘negotiations if it
‘looks like the whole treaty
- process will wind up in
‘cour.
- > “We're of the view that
both: First Nations can ex-
-ercise their rights to hunt
-and fish. (Their territories]
firen’t. necessarily exclu-

#¢ three.

sive of each other and
probably historically they
never were. So what we
have to figure out is how
to work co-operatively to-
gether.”

But such co-operation
appears to be eluding all
parties. During the past
years .of

th a

abeyance apreement,
nothing was done about
the problem of Nisga’a
fishing in Gitanyow terri-
tory, so it’s hard to see
why things should change
now, said Russell.

The fish at the centre of
the disagreement are cur-

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rently being taken under a
communal licence that al-
lows aboriginal groups to
fish for food, ceremonial
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north coast resource man-
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