Since its creation in 1993, the BC treaty process has cost more than $1 billion and has resulted in just two implemented treaties – the Tsawwassen and Maa-nulth.
At that rate, it would take 600 years to get treaties signed with the 60 First Nations who are part of the BC treaty process. That’s not counting the B.C. First Nations who have never bought into the treaty process.
That inertia prompted Sophie Pierre, head treaty commissioner, to issue a challenge in 2011, two years into her term as commissioner. She bluntly told all three parties involved, “If we can’t do it, it’s about time we faced the obvious – it isn’t going to happen, so shut ’er down.”
Her criticism was largely aimed at the federal government, which she believes is the biggest impediment to getting treaties signed.
“It got their attention,” said Pierre, who is about to start her third term as head treaty commissioner. “In fact, it got the First Nations’ attention, too.”
Some First Nations have spent a decade or more – and millions of borrowed dollars – to reach agreements in principle (AIPs), only to see the agreements rejected by the band members. Two such agreements have been rejected recently by the Namgis and Tla-o-qui-aht.
“On the First Nations side, we’ve got to stop stumbling over ourselves,” Pierre told Business in Vancouver. “We’ve had two AIP votes that have been turned down in the last two, three months. The First Nations, they’ve got to make sure their people are fully informed, because I don’t believe that they are.”
Despite her doubts about the federal government’s sincerity, Pierre still believes in the B.C. treaty process.
“We have a process in place that works. What we don’t have is complete commitment.”
Pierre added that Ottawa needs to give its negotiators a proper mandate to complete treaties. As it stands, once agreements are signed by the province and a First Nation, they go to Ottawa, to get picked apart by various departments – a process that can take two years or more.
“They unravel the whole thing. Why weren’t they at the table all the way along?” Pierre asks.
Two implemented treaties in two decades at a cost of more than $1 billion might look like failure to some. What the public doesn’t see is that First Nations have been slowly building up their own capacity to govern themselves and take control of their own economic development. Participating in the treaty process has been a part of that capacity building.
When she looks at her own community, the Ktunaxa, and compares it with what she grew up with, Pierre said there’s no question her people are better off than they were just a generation ago.
Pierre was born and raised on St. Mary’s Indian Reserve in the 1950s, when soldiers fresh from the war in Europe brought with them more than physical scars.
“Alcoholism became rampant,” said Pierre, who has three children and three grandchildren. “It was really the lowest point, I think – for many aboriginal communities across this country, but certainly for mine. You could hardly find a sober adult, other than grandparents.”
When she wasn’t away at residential school, Pierre spent a lot of time with her grandmother, who didn’t speak English.
Pierre was six when, in 1956, she was sent to a residential school across the river from St. Mary’s reserve. She spent 10 months a year at school until 1965.
“I could see my house from the top dormitory, but I couldn’t go home,” she said. “The good part is that my parents were alcoholics, so it was, in that sense, a safe place. But it was also a very uncaring, cold and difficult way for a child to grow up.”
After graduating from high school, Pierre got a job working for her band office as a secretary and, later, band manager. She soon realized she didn’t have the skills or education needed to do a proper job and decided to go to college.
In 1976 – having separated from her husband – she moved to Victoria with her two young children to attend Camosun College, where she got a diploma in business administration with an accounting major. She had planned to continue on to university to pursue a bachelor of commerce degree.
“I’ve always had this interest in making money, not just for myself, but I knew we needed to be able to make money and account for it in order to help our people.”
She never made it to university but would later receive honorary doctorate degrees in law from Canada West University and from the University of BC.
The 1970s were a time of change within aboriginal communities in the U.S. and Canada, with the assertion of aboriginal rights and push for self-government – a time of occupations, blockades and the rise of the American Indian Movement in the U.S. “I got the call to go home, intended to do that for a couple of years, and would pursue my education,” Pierre said, “and before I knew it 30 years had passed.” Pierre was part of a movement to build a tribal council and work toward self-government. In 1978, not long after she returned to her reserve, she was elected chief of the St. Mary’s band. She spent 30 years on the band council, 26 of them as chief. She also served as administrator of the Ktunaxa/Kinbasket Tribal Council, chaired the First Nations Finance Authority and was president of St. Eugene Mission Holdings Ltd.
As one of the nation builders within the Ktunaxa, to which her band belongs, she served as chairwoman of the board of directors for the SEM Partnership Ltd., a First Nations partnership that developed the St. Eugene Resort, Golf and Casino near Cranbrook.
The resort employs up to 270 people during the high season, and Pierre likes to point out it’s not just First Nations who have benefited from the enterprise.
That is typical, she added, whenever there is an economic development or treaty-related measure implemented with a First Nation.
“As soon as we have any economic benefit, it seeps out and the whole region benefits – but it’s not true the other way around.”
Pierre worked on the British Columbia Claims Task Force, which resulted in the BC Treaty Commission being formed, and served as a co-chairwoman of the First Nations Summit – the organization that represents B.C. First Nations in the treaty negotiation process.
But she never expected to be asked to serve as head commissioner – a job she accepted with some reluctance in 2009. She was reappointed for a second term, which expired a month ago, and has been appointed to a third.
All three parties must agree to the head commissioner’s appointment, so her reappointment shows her ability to achieve consensus among diverse interests.
“That really talks to Sophie’s ability to keep people informed and keep them coming forward,” said former B.C. lieutenant governor Steven Point, a former chief treaty commissioner himself. “She’s really a team-builder, and she’s done well there.”
Grand Chief Ed John, who sits on the political executive of the First Nations Summit Task Group, added, “As a chief commissioner, their job is to facilitate treaty negotiations, but they’re also an independent body overseeing negotiations, and independence is one streak Sophie certainly has.”
It was in her second year as commissioner that Pierre issued her challenge to the participants to renew their commitment or “walk away” from the process.
Recognizing that resolving treaties in their entirety is going to take longer than anyone thought, Pierre urged senior governments to commit to resolving land claims incrementally through treaty related measures.
To date, Victoria has signed 18 non-treaty agreements.
“The province has stepped up to the plate,” Pierre said. “We’re recommending that the feds need to do that.” •
