Vancouver Sun, Friday 19 December 1997

OPINION Guest column:

LET'S GET ON WITH LANDS CLAIM SETTLEMENTS

GENERATIONS OF NISGA'A MEN AND WOMEN HAVE GROWN OLD AT THE NEGOTIATING TABLE.

by Joseph Gosnell, Sr.

Last week's historic Delgamuukw decision confirms that negotiations, not lawsuits, offer the best way to settle aboriginal land claims in this country.

"Ultimately, it is through negotiated settlements, with good faith and give and take on all sides... that we will achieve... the reconciliation of the pre-existence of aboriginal societies with the sovereignty of the Crown," the court wrote.

While the Nisga'a people have always been committed to negotiations, this latest Supreme Court decision only strengthens our resolve to finalize a Nisga'a treaty that will benefit everyone, and bring us into Canada.

Economic certainty and increased investment are the documented benefits of the Nisga'a treaty for aboriginal and non-aboriginal business people.

The treaty will also send an important economic message to boardrooms around the world.

Milton Wong, CEO of M.K. Wong and Associates Ltd., recently urged Canada and British Columbia to ratify a Nisga'a treaty "that will establish the social, political and economic certainty to encourage investment in British Columbia and therefore be of enormous help to the business communities across this province.

"In the global marketplace, international companies who may wish to invest in B.C. are well aware of, and seriously concerned about, the economic uncertainty that surrounds the province as a result of unresolved land claims," Wong said.

Wong's warning supports an earlier government study that estimates B.C. has lost more than $1 billion in investment due to unsettled land claims, which have triggered road blockades, armed standoffs and court battles across the province.

Consider the current economic problems in B.C.'s northwest corridor, the place where I live.

I suggest the Nisga'a treaty can play a major part in the economic reconstruction of the Pacific Northwest. At present, the Nisga'a and other local aboriginal groups pump between $11 and $13 million into the city of Terrace and its region.

That will grow exponentially as the Nisga'a begin to invest the $193 million we negotiated under the treaty.

Critics who think the Nisga'a treaty is generous should check the ongoing costs of leaving land claims unsettled. According to the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, the total cost of maintaining the status quo -- under the universally despised and obsolete Indian Act -- is a staggering $7.5 billion a year.

This cost will rise to more than $11 billion a year over the next two decades.

Indeed, when considering the benefits of signing the Nisga'a treaty, the real mystery is why Ottawa and Victoria have been dragging their heels.

The Nisga'a are are not a violent people.

We have a deep respect for the rule of law. You have not seen us barricading roads, you have not seen us in shootouts with the police.

But generations of Nisga'a men and women have grown old at the negotiating table, and today, our young people grow more insistent on becoming equal partners in the Canadian community.

The Nisga'a agreement in principle we signed in 1996 is a fact of life. Soon, we hope to announce a final treaty.

The settlement of our claim is a monumental achievement for our tribe and for Canadian society. The agreement proves that reasonable people can sit down and settle historical wrongs.

It proves that modern society can review the mistakes of the past and ensure that minorities are treated fairly.

It will allow us to go forward equipped with the dignity and confidence that we can make critical contributions -- social, political and economic -- to Canadian society.

There will be detractors to our settlement who say our interests should continue to be ignored.

There will be those that say Canada and B.C. are "giving" us too much. And there may be a few others, particularly within the aboriginal community, who say we settled for too little.

Both are wrong; they have taken their eye off the financial bottom line.

Surely, no one -- aboriginal or non-aboriginal -- can support the lamentable alternative: the millions of taxpayers' dollars spent annually to keep us beggars in our own lands.

I am confident the Nisga'a treaty will soon be finalized. It has to be done soon, for to quote the Delgamuukw decision: "Let's face it, we are all here to stay."

So let us get on with it.