Forest Service and natives “T'VE LEARNED a heck of a lot,’ says Norm Parry of his seven months as the Kalum Fores! District’s operations man- ager for Aboriginal Affairs, But he’s quick to add there’s "still more learning to do, The job covers a lot of territory in every sense: acting as forestry .-lechnical. advisor. in. the Nisga’ a land. claim negotiations, passing ‘on information on those negotia- tions at third party meetings, cn- couraging forest companies to in- ‘crease employment opportunities for natives and promoting aware- ness of native issues among dis- trict staff. -He also consults with native “groups when it comes Io logging ‘plans in areas affected by land claims, - Thal consultation is required as ‘a result of the Delgamunkw court case (see story below), Parry. explained the Forest Ser- vice must determine what affect any plans it has might have on aboriginal rights in the area. “That involves finding out whal the past activities of natives in the particular area were, did those ac- tivities qualify as aboriginal tights and what affect logging ‘plans would have on those ac- tivitics. “The problem is the courts did - not define aboriginal rights in any exact sense. “Quite often there are different interpretations of what the court ruling means,’’ Parry sald. Take trapping, for example. It was undoubiedly an aboriginal aciivity, but did it qualify as an “aboriginal right? Repap CREATING JOB opportunilies for natives in the forest industry is part of Derrick Curtis’ own job. And in 18 months as manager of aboriginal affairs for Repap in the northwest, he’s had some suc- cess, .. But, says Curtis, employment expectations. in mative com-. munities exceed the realily. “A lot of people are dreaming about the number of jobs that are being created, “Logging today is machine in- tensive, not man intensive,’ he pointed out. Curtis said he tries to point that out in discussions with native groups. . However, he added, natives al- ready make up a substantial per- cenlage of Repap’s employees. finding way through maze THERE ARE : a iot of grey areas when it comes to consulting with northwest natives on Forest Ser- vice plans in thelr traditional territories, but Norm Parry (above) finds the task fascinating. And if it does, ‘how many animals a year docs that mean? There were also jurisdictional issues to be resolved. While the court had said the natives had to be consulted, it had. not conferred ownership of the land on the na- lives, Therefore, they were not in a position, under the decision, to exercise a velo. , At the same time, Parry empha- sized, ‘‘We don’! want to make decisions that impinge on areas that are culturally imporiani to nalives,”’ A further difficulty is while the Forest Service and native leaders are tackling issues at this level, Keyl In the case of the Carnaby mill in the Hazelions, more than half ils staff and hourly employees ete native, '‘a very high number any- where in B.C.”’, Outside the mill, there were half a dozen logging contracts employing approximately 50 na- tives plus. scasonal silvicultural contracts. Curtis said efforts are now being made to get natives in- volved in areas such as limber Cruising and the field side of planning. Contractors were being en- couraged to hire nalive graduates of: the Northwest Community College’s forestry course, run out of its Hazelton campus. While the new graduates will not have the skill levels of more negotiations on the larger ques- tion of land claims were going on ‘at the same time. Therefore, Parry said, it was un- derstandable natives. might be reluctant to cede jurisdiction while the political issues remained unresolved, “It’s sometimes difficult to separate those issues,” he pointed out, Having those two processes going on simultaneously also cre- ated difficuities for. the natives themselves. Faced with requests for input at both levels, Parry said the demands on their time can be- come overwhelming for some na- tive groups. experienced workers, “‘they will come as they do the job,’’ he pointed oul. Curtis is currently negotiating a number of other contracts and anticipates at least some of them will come to fruition, And just who he negotiates with varies from a band to a house to an individual level. : - Apart from the employment side, he is also responsible - for getting native input on Repap’s development plans and cutting permits, ‘‘to make sure we're not inconflict”, On the whole, Curtis said the native reaction to his appointment has been positive because it showed the company recognized that the natives were there and should be involved. “Tt s street.” Despite the difficulties, Parry was convinced progress was being made in each side under- standing where the other was coming from. “‘Nalive issues are becoming part of our Forest Service cul- ture,’” he maintained, Ata personal level, Parry is en- joying the job. He reads as much as he can about the history of na- tives in the northwest and finds it ** fascinating information’’, Recalling the first time he read there had been 5,000 years of permanent habitation in the Kit- selas, he admits, *‘It just blew me away.” definitely a two-way on native Jobs Derrick Curtis Court call leaves questions FOR NOW it’s the law of the land. But a B.C. Court of Appcal tuling last year makes it difficult for governments and resource companies to make development decisions because there are no clear or sel guidelines. The case is Delgamuukw et al. y. the Queen in which the Gitksan and Wet’suwet’en, centered in the Hazellons, sought recognition of their right to own and govern 37,000 square kilo- metres of land. Although the native case was substantially denied in an original B.C, Supreme Court decision, the ‘appeal court found that some aboriginal rights do exist, Those rights may not extend to outright ownership of land or the ability to govern by passing laws. But the rights do connect mod- erm. use of land and accompany- ing resources with traditional uses Interim deal is IT’S PROBABLY one of the more comprehensive deals over resource development ever signed between a native group and the provincial government. And while the deal doesn’t give the Nisga’a Tribal Council a veto over resource development il does provide them a substantial say in what should happen. Italso holds clues as to how na- tive groups and governments get along today: and what shape final land claims settlements could take, The deal was signed in fate 1992 and is called an Interim Pra- tection Measures Agreement. The interim aspect comes into play because the agreement is to last during land claims negolla- by native groups. Tn essence, natives have a con- tinuing right for the traditional usc of virtually all land in B.C. that is cither nol occupied or de- veloped or which is being pro- posed for development. At the same time, the appeal court indicated aboriginal rights may vary from onc group {fo an- other, depending upon their tradi- tional use. And that raises a problem for governments and companies be- Cause they must first determine what those rights are on a case by case basis. when proposing resource development, One of the closest examples in the northwest is the Cranberry Timber Supply Area (TSA) north of Kiltwanga. The TSA carries an annual al- lowable cut of 110,000 cubic metres, A decision to put the tim- ber up for sale has been stalled tions between the Nisga’a and federal and provincial govern- ments. It’s intended to recognize the ' interests of the Nisga’a and of other resource users: while settle- ment talks are underway. Although the agreement is now under discussion and could be changed, the man leading the ne- goliations. on the part. of the provincial government is happy with what’s been accomplished. “There have been some. hitches and glitches but that’s largely be- cause no one has done anything like, that. before,”’ said Jack Eb- bels. In short form, the deal gives the Nisga’a a line of communication and involvement over new mini- for months while the forest ser- Vice irles to determine what tradi- tional uses and rights natives have to the area. More important, it has to decide if its efforts to determine those righls are adequate. That docsn’t surprise Geoffrey Plant, an expert on native law with the firm of Russell and DuMoulin, which represented the provincial government when Del- gamuukw was before the B.C. Supreme Court, ‘*The appeal court didn’t give a test. It didn’t give a checklist on what should happen,’’ he said, Any perceived failure on the part of a government agency or a company to determine native tights could end up in a court battle, Plant added. But he did note the majority of ihe justices on the Delgamunkw appeal feit competing Interests should work co-operatively rather than adopt an all-or-nothing ap- proach, “We're not quite in the dark bul we’re more in the dark than Id like to be,” he said, The lack of clear guidelines doesn’t quite paralyze industry but it does greatly slow down de- cision making, says John Howard, a lawyer and senior vice president § with MacMillan Bloedel. “It’s hard when everything can fo be taken to a court,”’ he said. ‘The prospect of new or renewed court fights over aboriginal righis is distressing to Howard. “It's costly and more painful. Litigation always elicits hard feclings,’’ he said. (Delgamuukw remains law for now until an appeal. by the Gilksan and Wet’suwte’en | is heard by the Supreme Court of Canada, That’s expected to take as long as three years.) wide-ranging ng and logging activities and over road construction. It-also freezes some land from logging; at least until a settlement is reached. And lands around Nisga’a vil- lages are also frozen so as to leave enough space when expan- sion is needed. Another provincial offictal on the Nisga’a negotiations team is Tom Chamberlin and he points to the. environmental. protection committee formed as part of the agreement It provides one of the vehicles for communication of plans and intentions, be says, “I'd say one of the outcomes of the agreement is that it is an edu- _ tational device in that the Nisga’a are leaming a lot more about the nitty. gtitty of the workings of government and the government is leaming more Nisga’a,”’ said Chamberlin. Nisga’a Tribal. Council execu- live director Rod Robinson said ihe Nisga’a originally wanted to freeze. all resource development within Its claim. territory until a final deal was signed. *‘But that wasn’t an aliernative, There would have been a lot of effects, including on our people. who work ‘on the land far their ‘living,”’ he said, Instead, the Nisga’a viewed the deal’ which permits. existing .de- velopmenis to continue as an ade- quate compromise, added, . coe The Tetrace Standard, Wednesday, April 13, 1994. - A5 SA CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD The Mail Bag | Fair deal expected Dear Sir: I’m glad to sce the Terrace and District Chamber of Commerce signalling its desire to assist in educating the community as the up- coming deliberations on land and resource planning in the north- west loom. Its hosting of an inaugural “information”? session on the econom- ic impact of the local forest industry Thursday night is a good first Stop at introducing some of the complex and contentious issues we as a community will have to resolve over the next few years, Some hard choices face northwest communities over the next few years; many of those choices depend on (as many of our com- munities are currently dependent on) the direction the forest indus- try takes in the near future. Fortunately, we are not without options, though some of the directions we have followed in the past have been ill-advised and have led us down the occasional garden path and dead-end trail. Thus we find ourselves today facing certain austerities as the in- dustry is forced to face up to the fact that in the Kalum North Tim- ber Supply Area, for example, the current rate of extraction (1.25 million cubic metres/year) is more than three times the sustainable cul We, as a community, will soon be asked. by the provincial chief forester whether we wish to continue liquidating that resource base al current rales, or whether we think it prudent to establish a more sustainable economic base for northwest communities. We will need, too, to consider whether we can continue to be satisfied with an industry that produces just 1 job per 1000 cubic metres of wood we cut, when the industry in Sweden can produce 2.73 jobs per thousand cubic metres, and the amazing Austrians Manage to extract 24.31 jobs from that same volume of wood! We may even want to re-define productivity in terms of the quali- ty of ihe communities our resource base can sustain, rather than just in terms of industry bottom-lines, There are a tremendous number of such factors we will need to assess carefully in reaching a resporsible decision on the paths our industry must take over the next few years. 1 would suggest that the Commission on Resources and the En- vironment (CORE) process under former Ombudsman Stephen Owen would make an apt topic for the chamber’s second sortie into this field of public edification. According to the authoritative jour- nal, Forest Planning Canada, “‘Forest planning processes in B.C. have routinely been manipulaied to ensure that the outcome is predetermined — that is to. maximize the rate of logging, with all other forest values secondary to that primary objective. CORE proposes to end this conflict driven approach by. substituting a shared decision-making process. Shared decision making means that all interests are legitimate and the process Is fair. But some sec- lors are already mancuvering to subvert CORE’s new approach.’” According to chamber president Sharon Taylor, “CORE seems to have created confrontation, It would be better to have something in which local people are invotved.”’ Weil, m’am, Pd contend thal confrontation between conflicting claims On our resources is al- ready a fact of life and that the CORE process of consensus- building offers an attractive alternative. Id suggest that the CORE process on Vancouver Island certainly got a whole lot of folks seriously involved in the decision-making process —— many of them probably for the first time in their lives. I’d even go so far as to suggest that the fact that CORE’s Van- couver Island recommendations seem to have vexed everybody is a strong, argument i in favour of their: overall fairness, .,.j. 4: - Dare one’ hope ‘that the" chamber” 5 “educationa ” efforts: will prove to be so fair? “ Le ‘John How, : ‘ : Bue, _ Ferrace, B.C, Ve Hey, it s Just a game. Dear Sir: This letter is writin in response to an event which occurred dur- ing the Pee Wee AA Hockey Provincials held recently in Terrace, As Seafair took the ice, our players were Tesoundly booed by fans supporting the Terrace team. T have been involved in various childrens’ sports for nine years;". and over thal time, I have never witnessed spectators behave in this manner toward a team of young athletes. How does a person answer a1Z year old who asks ‘‘Coach, why are they booing us?’ Our players were participating in an event they will remember for the rest of their lives. The hospitality shown us by the organizers, referees, and the members of Terrace Minor Hockey Association was second fo none, | Unfortunately, it is sad to think that the behaviour on the ‘Part of some “‘adults’’ will also be a part of those memories, To the several fans who came up and apologized for the behaviour of others; thank you. To the rest, I would ask you to re-consider your actions, give the opposing team a cheer, and above all, remember — It’s only a . game. Roger Nelson, Assistant Coach, Seafalr Minor Hockey Pee Wee AA Richmond, B.C. EE THE START IS FOR PEOPLE LEARNING TO READ The Start about the’ -Robinson FAST AND DEADLY are F-18s belonging to tha Canadian Armed Forces. One of these aircraft will be on display at the . May 3 alrshow. CANADIAN FORCES PHOTO Snowbirds on thelr way -MAKE SURE you have some free time on May 3. There is going to be an airshow at the airport on that day. This is the first ever airshow for the airport. Lots of people have been working hard on plans, One of the acts coming is the Snowbirds. These are air-. planes belonging to the Canadian Armed Forces. There: are nine Snowbird airplanes, The airshow starts i in the late afternoon, Tickets are $5.