Today, negotiators from the Government of Canada, the Government of B.C. and Lheidli T’enneh First Nation initialled the Lheidli T’enneh Treaty.
All parties have updated the 2006 Final Agreement, including changing the name of the agreement to the Lheidli T’enneh Treaty.
This name change is a symbol of the evolving federal and provincial approaches to reconciliation with Indigenous people.
“Through the treaty, we’re going to govern ourselves. Our traditional rights will be protected, and we will own our land. We will build an economy, and stand side by side with our neighbours in our territory. With the treaty, we’re moving forward. Without it we’re stuck,” Dominic Frederick, Chief of Lheidli T’enneh First Nation
Lheidli T’enneh members will vote in June 2018 on the treaty and constitution.
The treaty maintains all of the original benefits from 2006, as well as some new, which will allow the agreement to evolve with certain provincial and federal negotiations and policies.
Terms include:
- 4,330 hectares of treaty settlement lands, known as Lheidli T’enneh Lands
- $37.1 million capital transfer
- $502,000 per year for 50 years in resource revenue sharing
- $2.29 million per year in ongoing funding for services such as health, education and social development, and for governance activities
- $15 million in one-time funding for implementation, fisheries and capacity building
- $1.69 million in one-time funding for an economic development fund
- $100,000 annually for a community development officer
- The treaty protects the rights of Lheidli T’enneh citizens to hunt, fish and gather throughout defined traditional harvest areas
“New language in the Lheidli T’enneh Treaty presents a positive path forward to guide our government-to-government relationship into the future, and reflects our interest in advancing treaties beyond the restrictions seen in past decades," said Scott Fraser, B.C. Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation.
"We are working together with partners on an approach to treaties and agreements with First Nations that is grounded in recognition and implementation of rights and title, and which supports prosperous, healthy and self-determining Indigenous communities."
