_ "people —a chief negotiator and a

Feds replace negotiator _on the Nisga’a land claim

TERRACE — Federal officials

aren’t saying why their chief ne-

. gotiator for the Nisga’a land claim has been removed.

* Gay Reardon is on what is

being called a leave until being

' . given new and so far unknown

duties.) She was replaced Feb. 1 by two |

new associate chief negotiator.

A press'release announcing the

< appointments of David Osborn as - “a veblef: negotiator and Chris Thomas as associate chief negoti- -

- ator did not contain any reference to'Reardon.

Gov't boosts claims effort

govemment’s new chief Nisga'a “land: claims negotiator comes

"with years of settlement experi-

~ ence in the Northwest Territories. _ David Osborn is an Ottawa law- yer who worked under contract

“on two claims in the Mackenzie

Valley, “When the negotiations on the

ae second claim wrapped up late last

year, Osbom was asked to be- _ come more involved in the effart : to settle land claims in B.C.

“Tt lead very quickly to another: decision to get more deeply in- volved “in the Nisga’a negolia- tions,” said Osbom last week.

--He was introduced to the provincial: government and the -Nisga'a during a December nego- tiating session and his appoint-

“ment became effective Feb. 1.

Osborn: said his appointment, and that of associate chief negoti- ator. Chris Thomas, signals a deci- sion to.;commit more federal ~ yesources to the Nisga’a talks.

- The Nisga’ ‘a. talks involve three

Partics . as dig: ‘the ones,.inesthenedat

lorthwest Territories but there‘is~.

a key difference here, said Os- =

bom “The province has jurisdiction

_ overland and resources which

represent the key portions of "settlement. “T anticipate good, — hard : thoughtful work,”’ said Osborn, - He faces. his first negotiation session this week in Prince Rupert - ~ Associate chief negotiator Chris ~ Thomas begins work March 1. A -- Jawyer, Thomas has international “trade negotiation experience and “has been involved in arbitrations

_ and dispute resolutions.

“T really can’t tell you anything about that,” said Indian and Northen Affairs spokesman Jonathan Rayner when asked why Reardon was removed.

Reardon had been leading the federal negotiating team on the Nisga’a claim for the past three

| Years = Rayner did say there had been

four provincial land claims nego- liators during the time of Rear- don's service. “Reardon’s . removal comes several months after Nisga’a spokesman said they wanted to get rid of her and would ensure this would take place. Their-comments came last Oc- tober following a mecting in which Reardon and provincial chief negotiation Jack Ebbels got into a public dispute.

' The dispute, at an open house

meeting held to give information on the claim talks, was over release of the Nisga’a interim protection measures agreement.

Reardon told Ebbels

she

wouldn't sign the agreement until the province gave written as- Surances it had talked ils contents over with affected parties,

Ebbels said the province had al- ready provided assurances and would not do what Reardon wanted.

~ The--dispute was eventually settled and the agreement released in December,

Rayner said he wasn’t aware of any Nisga’a pressure lo have Reardon removed. ,

And Nisga’a Tribal Councif ex- eculive director Rod Robinson, speaking last week, said that while it was unhappy with Rear- don at times, it never asked for her removal.

“We are critical of the process and we tell that to them and when we make an assessment of the critique,”’ said Robinson.

The Nisga’a mostly were un- happy that the federal govern- ment hasn’t devoted a Jot of tesources to the claims talks.

“Some of -that wasn’t her

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