Nisga’a nightmare — The $200-billion problem

If a referendum were held tomorrow, British Columbians would overwhelmingly reject the Nisga’a treaty now being debated in the House of Commons. Well, debate may be too generous a word. Three of the four parties in the House, including the ruling Liberal party, have endorsed the land-claim agreement that gives a huge chunk of land, bags of money and unprecedented autonomy to a small group of natives living in northern B.C. Only the Reform Party has spoken out against the treaty and the social and economic divisions it will bring to Canadian society.

Of course, a referendum about Nisga’a will never be held in British Columbia, not as long as the bungling, rudderless New Democratic Party is in power. They know they have no public support for the treaty, or for negotiating the myriad of others still in the pipeline. They have no public support for much of anything anymore, not since they cooked the books in the finance department and overspent their way into the ferry-building business.

Ottawa won’t sail to the rescue either. It will carry on as it has always has, not caring a fuddle-duddle about what British Columbians think, forgetting that the entire province is blanketed by native land claims (more than the entire province, if one takes into account overlapping claims). Some native groups are even seeking compensation for all of greater Vancouver, as well as for resources exploited in the past.

British Columbia would be bankrupt tomorrow if it settled even a fraction of these claims in the generous way that the Nisga’a land-claim was settled. The already-weak economy could be pushed into recession if access to huge tracts of land and valuable resources become restricted and a matter of race.

So far, none of the opposition parties except Reform has asked the government for clarification about which of the many other claims will be settled, and at what cost. What is known is that it will cost taxpayers a staggering $200 billion to satisfy all aboriginal demands already on the books — a hefty bill, and just so that elitist politicians can assuage their guilt over past treatment of natives.

Well-meaning people in Ottawa argue that the Nisga’a treaty marks a new era in native and non-native relations, that it is about self-determination and a return to a healthier, more traditional way of life. Things must be done differently, they say, if we are to end the social ills that grip so many native communities.

We agree. Things should be done differently. After all, billions are spent on aboriginals each year, yet conditions at many reserves are abysmal, with unemployment rates still in the stratosphere. These persistent social ills have their roots in centuries of government paternalism, in programs that keep natives dependent and isolated from the social and economic mainstream. Even today, to receive the full range of benefits, natives must remain on reserves, often in isolated areas where young people have few job opportunities.

Rather than welcoming natives into Canadian society, Ottawa has focused on replacing one form of apartheid with a more politically correct version. Its disastrous approach to native land claims not only sets natives against non-natives; it threatens the economic well-being of all Canadians, as well as the environment. Already, numerous development projects are being held hostage to the demands of natives, including oil and gas projects, a resource never exploited by natives in the past.

The Nisga’a treaty, coupled with the Supreme Court’s nebulous and open-ended Delgamuukw opinion of 1997 (which upheld traditional rights to land and resources) and its more recent Mi’kmaq decision (which allows natives to fish without a licence and out of season), are all backward steps for Canada, for the rule of law, and for the equality of its citizens.

These settlements and court opinions aren’t about fairness, and they certainly aren’t about democracy. They are about guilt, about paying for past sins, which is fine for the do-gooders of this world, but quite another matter for the people who must live with their race-based consequences (in this case, all British Columbians and all Canadians). Worst of all, they entrench apartheid in Canada.

Natives should be welcomed into modern society, not encouraged to hold on to an isolationist, traditional past that is no longer relevant in a modern age and that offers little opportunity for young people. To be forever looking backward hardly helps people move forward.