 Good afternoon. Firstly, thank you very much Chris for the kind introduction and thorough review of my background. I guess that's what one gets when you're 68 years of age. A lot of experience and I've had my share of it so I'm certainly pleased to be before you here this afternoon. Thank you very much for coming and for listening to what I have to say. Before I proceed I too wish to acknowledge and give respect to the coastal Salish peoples of this area, to the Songhees First Nation and to the Esquimalt Nation which is just next door to us right here. This is their traditional lands and I honor and I hold my hands up high to the ancestors of these lands who protected these lands and these resources for all of us here to enjoy. My Okanagan silk's name is Simu. Simu in our language means connected to the land. My stem tima, my grandmother gave that to me and when I was still a young boy and she said that was something that very major significance because my ancestors, some of them, carried that name. I'm very proud to be connected to the land and to be chairman of the First Nations Lands Advisory Board across Canada and to work with lands matters, economic development matters with First Nations in particular across Canada. So it gives me great honor to carry my name. This is a speaking series on the Indigenous Economic Development and Reconciliation. My job I believe is to help build public and governmental understanding and capacity in the terms of awareness of Indigenous Economic Development perspective and land governance. A lot of what I've been doing in my work as chairman of the Lands Advisory Board working with First Nations and assisting those First Nations into being government decision makers with lawmaking powers is connected to reconciliation. So what is reconciliation? This means moving ahead and not being stuck in the past. It means the restoration of friendly relations, making one's belief compatible with another, First Nations to the public, to government. It's a coming together of cultures and people and it's an understanding of what that means. The elements include several things including truth, justice, healing, forgiveness with compassion. It's a closing of gap of inequities that have existed and what needs to be done. That's what the country is facing right now is reconciliation. To me, reconciliation to a large part is about recognizing First Nations as governments, as real, substantive governments with lawmaking powers, the jurisdiction to pass laws, to make their own decisions, to decide for themselves how they are going to protect their lands, develop their lands, respect their lands while at all times upholding their culture. That's what it means to me. It's recognizing that First Nations were established societies and have been so for thousands and thousands of years, the first peoples of these lands. Today, First Nations want that resumption of self-governance authority that they enjoyed for thousands of years and that's what First Nations want and Indigenous peoples want from my perspective and how I'm trying to relay it to you. So that is some of the consideration that I give when I think about reconciliation. I've been involved in a lot of negotiations in my time. I was a member of the First Nations Summit for four years and worked for the chiefs and the communities here in this province to try and negotiate modern-day treaties. So I've had a lot to do with reconciliation. Reconciliation hasn't moved very fast in this country. I've been involved for a long time. Since about 1990, almost continuously, my First Nation was involved in reconciliation for an attempt for close to 15 years and we didn't resolve it. There was no settlement of land claims, no reconciliation and I worked hard for the First Nations communities in this province from the First Nations perspective to say let's reach a settlement, let's get this thing resolved, land claims, our Indigenous rights, let's get clarity, let's get investments, let's make the people have a future and I've been involved in that. So now into my presentation because I believe a lot of what the land management work has done is about reconciliation. Building capacity in First Nations governance and helping to right the wrong done to our peoples. So I'm going to speak to you about some of the history in Canada involving First Nation peoples, the historic significance of this land management initiative, the purpose of the Frame Agreement on First Nation Land Management and the resulting implementation of the community control over First Nation lands and resources. I want to talk to you about the roles that exists within the Lands Advisory Board and that the First Nation Land Management Resource Center is an important aspect of that to administer that and I'll cover that. How the Lands Advisory Board and the Resource Center relate to other First Nation institutions. You've heard Chris explain the purpose of this series and we are involved and work with other institutions. We are not an institution as the Lands Advisory Board. We are a collective group of First Nations that work together not under the institutional capacity that is controlled by government. Other institutions are formed with government orders and councils and that sort of thing. We're not an institution but we work with these institutions. I want to touch upon the evolution of the Lands Advisory Board and the Resource Center since its inception of the Frame Agreement. The future collaborations with the province of British Columbia on BC's reconciliation initiatives. Some of the experiences we have time to touch upon those First Nations that have been successful with their land codes and of course leave time for your questions. This here map that you see on the wall is shows you the extent of First Nations occupation in Canada from time immemorial. The first peoples of the lands undeniably are First Nations indigenous peoples. Historically they're all self governing. No one put laws over our ancestors and that has been since time immemorial that this occupation of Canada from coast to coast has existed. Just a few days ago, Sunday I traveled to Fort St. John and met with the Doi Gregor River First Nation and met Monday and was able to talk to them about their future and about land development and what they might want to do with their jurisdiction. One of the things I learned is a history. They showed me a cave location that goes back estimated between 12,500 and 14,000 years. Cave where they have artifacts and paintings in. One of the oldest known occupational evidence of occupation of First Nations peoples that exists in this province and they have been there since that time. Continuously occupying occupying those lands. So when you talk about connecting to the lands and the First Nations involvement that's where First Nations sees themselves as being the first peoples and having the duty to respect and look after the lands and the resources. That's where First Nations peoples are coming from. Since European contact which is now from the somewhere in the 1600s there about probably less than 400 years things have changed. There's been interaction with communities. One of the first things that the newly formed government of Canada did was pass the Indian Act in 1876. That was an attempt to consolidate all the previous acts, statutes and policies into one body. One new reference point. It gave Canada that coordinated approach to Indian policymaking along with the justification to implement and to enforce those policies. Quite simply it was about assimilation. Turning the Indian into a white man. The role that indigenous culture and way of life into the white society was then meant to move into the modern evolving society. Indians we don't need you Indians as far as your culture you need to be assimilated. And the Constitution Act that was passed the framework of the legislation where everything derives from in Canada is the Constitution Act of 1867. That Constitution through section 9124 gave Canada the authority to legislate over all matters related to Indians and lands reserved for Indians. The Indian Act was the expression of this authority. Now what some of you may find a bit odd there was absolutely zero no consultation with First Nation peoples when that Indian Act was passed. There is no evidence that I've seen in the history of Canada that talks about consultation. It was simply an imposed will by the then government to say Indians you've got to assimilate. As I know you're all aware the first Prime Minister of Canada was Sir John A. McDonald. In 1887 he stood up in Parliament and he talked about the Indian Act and this is exactly the words that he said when he talked about the Indian Act and what was government's intention. He said the great aim of our legislation has been to do away with the tribal system and assimilate the Indian people in all respects with the other inhabitants of the Dominion as speedily as they are fit to change. That clearly initiated the policies and what it meant to indigenous peoples of Canada. The legacy of that Indian Act exists and I'm sure you're probably somewhat familiar with that legacy. It's been in the news you've heard about it and I'm sure most of you have read about it. The Indian Act has been deemed to be paternalistic. If you were a band member you needed permission to leave the Indian Reserve. You could not sell your wood that you may have cut to raise monies or your hay without the Indian agent saying you could do so. You needed permission sometimes to leave the reserve. The children were generally put into residential schools and you know the legacy there. It's very clearly captivated in the Truths and Reconciliation Commission report and there's a lot of healing and forgiveness that is there and is still needed. There's recognition of that. First Nation peoples were enfranchised meaning they lost their Indian status. They were no longer an Indian. I've received a degree for example in law. Had I been born and surviving in that late 1800s early 1900s the moment I would have obtained that degree I would have automatically been enfranchised. I would have lost my Indian status no longer recognized as an Indian person. That is a fact and that's what happened to some of our peoples. We were forbade as First Nations Indigenous peoples to form political organizations. It was against the law to do so. We were prevented legally from pursuing land claims. We did not have the right to go to court prior to 1951 with an amendment to the legislation that allowed for that. Many of the ancestors here, the coastal Salish peoples in particular that practiced their potlatches and culture were jailed for having potlatches, for giving their wealth to others as part of their status and they were jailed for it. Their ceremonies were declared illegal. They could not speak their tongue in residential schools and I know lots of stories or heard lots of stories of the results that have happened from that. We did not have the right to vote federally until the passage of the Bill of Rights Act in 1960. So that is not really that long ago. All of this under the premise that Indigenous peoples had to be assimilated. So now looking at the history of land management, when you look through the Indian Act, you look through some of the history, there's certain things that First Nations are allowed to do. The Indian Act is really a regulatory piece of legislation that dictates that the master in control is the federal government as represented by the Department of Indian Affairs. The authority rested with the Department of Indian Affairs to the Indian agents and the superintendents, the ministers and governors and councils all within the federal government domain. There were some changes put into the Indian Act that allowed a form of delegation of authorities in land management. Two of those sections are section 53 and section 60. I was involved in the early stages to help move the development of land management across Canada and it started really with a lawsuit by my community, the West Bank First Nation while I was chief in the 1986 and 87 era when they revoked West Banks then called Indian Bands Land Management Authorities over a lot of misgivings and reviews of the previous councils of the day and the real injustice that was happening in the community. They formed the Hall Commission and inquired into the affairs of West Bank. When they revoked our authorities, one of the first tasks I did as an upcoming new chief was to call that meeting and we had 100% turnout of every member voting that had the right to vote on our reserve that came out meeting. At the end of the meeting the direction was clear. You, chief and council bring a lawsuit to get the land management authorities even though they were delegated back to the hands of the West Bank Indian Bands. So I started that process. Two years we were really at the steps of the courthouse basically with all the arguments ready, the arguments ready to go and I received a call from the Department of Indian Affairs assistant minister at that time and the request was chief we would like to settle with you. We would like to return your land management delegated authorities. We discussed that. I agreed on certain conditions. One, pay us the monies that we spent to fight this lawsuit. Secondly, make this thing happen very, very quickly. They came back and they said chief we would like you to make some recommendations to us as Canada. We were doing this lands and reserves and trust study and we're looking for recommendations and we'd like to hear from you as to what you would suggest that we do with land management under the Indian Act. So I agreed. They put some monies together and I started the process and I worked with the other 5360 authority bans. There were nine First Nations only across Canada and we started that process. The result was the Framp agreement on First Nations land management. We looked at funding. Yes, we worked out arrangements as to what proper funding might be. All of that took place in the negotiations but then we looked further. We said do we want to be under the Indian Act? We want to do just amendments to the Indian Act. We want something more than that and it was agreed that we wanted the inherent right to manage our own affairs. At that same point in the history of time, there was new government change. The then new liberal government came in and they campaigned on the premise that they were going to recognize the inherent rights of First Nations. When we approached them on that, they had nothing to offer. So we offered this. We said you as a government, you've said you've campaigned on the premise that you want to recognize the rights of indigenous peoples. The inherent right, well this is what you can do. We want the inherent right to manage our own affairs, our own reserves, our lands and resources under our governmental control, not yours. The agreement was reached. February 12th in 1996, a government to government agreement was reached and thus the land code formations and the development of land management for First Nations. What provided that leverage, of course, was the amendments that took place with the Constitution in 1982 and 1984. Sections 25 and section 35, those sections are very important sections to indigenous peoples and the rights of indigenous peoples. They recognize indigenous rights. They recognize treaties and land claims. They recognize First Nations. They knew it and may see peoples as indigenous peoples with certain rights in this country. It paved the way for the recognition of Aboriginal title where the Supreme Court of Canada now has ruled that Aboriginal title does exist. Title and Aboriginal's name rests with First Nations communities that have occupied those lands. The right to resume self-governance. That's what the Constitution provided. So with our initiative, reconciliation began. The Framers Agreements really is a conscious effort to shed the outdated Indian Act from our lives, to take away those land restrictive provisions that ruled us, to set aside those practices, policies and procedures and to take charge ourselves. This picture that you see here on the screen is a very historic one. This is then Chief Bill McHugh at the Chippewas of Georgina Island. This was the historic signing of that Framers Agreement in First Nations land management. As a chairman and as a participating member, the Framers Agreement is really where the principles are contained as to what we want to see with lawmaking. So Minister Ron Irwin is on the far right of the screen and the Chiefs of that time and those involved, including myself, were there. Originally driven by 14 First Nations communities. It was the first real recognition of the inherent right being recognized to manage our own lands and our own resources. A good friend of mine that passed on is very well recognized. Some or many of you may know of him, Chief Joe Mathias of the Squamish Nation. He was part of this process as we were moving to get government to make changes and to advance reconciliation. He made this comment when legislation was finally passed, when they recognized the government-to-government Framers Agreement and just before the turn of the millennium into the year 2000. He said, when this was accepted by Kennedy, he said, this may be the single most historic accomplishment for First Nations this century. To have First Nations recognized as governments with their own lawmaking powers and control over their own lands. So this was the enabling of First Nations to once again be self-governing. To resume control over their lands and their resources and to replace those restrictive outdated provisions of the Indian Act. This here slide basically gives you a diagram overview of the process. Here you see the Framford Agreement, which contains the principles that we negotiated with Canada and that government-to-government agreement in 1996. The bottom of the screen you see the Land Code. That is the laws that the First Nations will start as their framework of laws for the future. It's like the Parliament of British Columbia having its legal work done and you have all of the statutes and regulations and everything else follows the Land Codes the beginning. Lawmaking starts from that. It describes how it can and should be done and what it must contain. It has to be a community ratification. It's an opting in process. No First Nations is forced into incremental self-government. They have to choose it, want it, and they have to have a community vote to vote whether or not the people want it. And there's an individual agreement that has to be signed that describes how much moneys are going to get for land management, what the land description they have on their reserves and environmental issues. And on the government side they have to pass and ratify that Framford Agreement and they did so in 1999, June of 1999 by passing the First Nations Land Management Act. Thus the process. So what do First Nations Land Codes mean to those First Nations that choose to pass and implement those Land Codes? Firstly, it unshackles communities from the Indian Act. It means that First Nations resumes their inherent right as a recognized governmental decision maker over their lands and their resources. It gives full recognition to First Nations lawmaking powers and jurisdiction. So an operational First Nation can exercise those governmental powers without outside government interference. That's reconciliation and that's advancement of First Nations. It also replaces the Indian Act provisions with these laws that puts decision making back into the hands of the community and its members. Reserve lands can never be diminished in size. There can no longer be expropriation of roads or rights of ways for hydro lines. Things of that, it cannot be that automatically it has to have consultation, it has to have the consent of the First Nations peoples. No more lands to be taken from the reserves that have included in the past thousands and thousands and thousands of acres of lands that have been taken away from First Nations even after the reserves have been set up. A wrong that had to be remedied and this is what it does to protect that expropriation process. It provides increased accountability to the members and the citizens of that First Nations community and that helps allow decision making to take place at the speed of business. How as a governmental federal official going to handle land management authorities and move ahead with developments. When you've got 633 First Nations across Canada representing a million people and you've got a handful of people that are going to do that for First Nations not possible, not in this day and age. Speed of business means you need to make decisions when they have to be met if you want to pursue economic development and if you're restricted and if you have to have the permission and the consent of the minister and the governor and counsel and go through months and years of regulatory compliance you're not going to move ahead too fast so this changes that. First Nations get to decide their own future and implement what they want to see over their lands and resources not to be handheld or dictated to by government. Benefits have been amazing quicker decision making being able to make decisions and to move ahead at the speed of business. Strengthening a First Nation values and visions provides a more coordinated community focus undoubtedly. Protects legal interest that recognizes the First Nations as governments. It provides more flexibility, better lease terms that First Nations can negotiate for their lands that they wish to develop, better accountability, accountability to its membership. Not to no one else but to their own communities. Recognizing the interest and being accountable to third parties who might live indigenous or not on First Nations lands. It's enabled better relationships with financial institutions and it's allowed for the increased ability to borrow for capital investments and I of course as you've heard I'm the chairman and director of PCL's Trust Financial and I deal with financial matters and assist in the providing of loans to First Nations indigenous and non-indigenous peoples and I can tell you that this institution the PCL's Trust institution along with the other major banks in Canada all want to see First Nations with governing authorities because that's where the money rests with security. That's why they want to land and they ask me contingently what's the latest number of First Nations who's now operational who you're working with to develop to to get into self-government. These are the people we want to talk to because these are the people we're going to approach when we want to lend the monies and it's increased that I can assure you. So there's been a lot of internal and external investments. We did some independent studies and commissioned one of the larger groups in Canada KPMG to do reports and they've studied and examined whether or not land codes and self-governance is working. Has it worked? The answer overwhelmingly yes. Hundreds of millions soon to be billions if not billions have been generated. First Nations are moving ahead really at the speed of business and no First Nation yet who has passed the land code that I have heard in Canada and I deal with First Nations right across this country not one has said we made a mistake we should not be self-governing not one will go back to the controls of the Indian Act even if they could they would not and KPMG has confirmed that and the investment has been significant to allow this to happen. Government has supported this why because they get a return on their investment up to 10 times the return of monies that they put into it comes out in economic benefits with jobs employment opportunities both indigenous and non-indigenous alike. So it's really moved the needle in a very positive way. So the first three First Nations that passed their land codes did so at the turn of the millennium when 2000 struck midnight when it we had a new century. Three First Nations had their land codes passed and they paved the way for others to follow. Chippewas of Georgina Island on Ontario, Mississaugas of Skogog Island again in Ontario and Muscaday First Nation in Saskatchewan. All had their laws passed by the community and they took effect at the striking of midnight going into 2000 so that was historic. Ultimate goals served by the France agreement on land management is is that we want to have all First Nations aware of the option to exercise their right to govern their lands to have this as an option if they choose to follow. Each community would decide how to govern its lands and resources under its own culture. There has to be effective land and resource governance and that is the really the cornerstone of decolonization. That's where it begins having that control and lawmaking. That government to government relationships will strengthen Canada and First Nations and the people of Canada. And each First Nation must have sufficient resources to govern its reserve lands and resources effectively. These are all parts of the negotiations and what part of that outcome has been. So First Nations involved. The French agreement has been historically and extremely successful in getting First Nations into into sectoral self government from coast to coast in this country. As of December of 2019 we had 94 First Nations that became operational with incremental self governments who had now have the full power and controls over their lands and their resources. Lawmaking powers unfettered without intervention by federal and provincial governments. In British Columbia we have 51 First Nations that have that incremental power and it's growing on a year by year basis. Three of our First Nations have moved from incremental First Nation governance to more full self governance including my community at West Bank, including the Tawassan community and Slyamun. All were land code First Nations that have moved on to further self governance and it's continuing to happen. Presently there are 35 First Nations in the developmental phase of getting their communities ready for a vote developing their land codes. 39 First Nations are temporarily at their choosing and active waiting for their own communities change and priorities and 61 First Nations are waitlisted for this opportunity. I received calls on the weekly basis by First Nations wanting to get involved. This across Canada that are in the operational or developmental phase so it really covers from Vancouver Island right through to Newfoundland. What are the main success factors for having a successful frame agreement? Why did this happen? Well three things four things perhaps. One the process was designed by First Nations. Government didn't tell us what we wanted to do. We had to come up without thinking ourselves. We designed it. We came up with the ideas and we presented to government you need to recognize inherent rights of First Nations. We have to have this authority. We have to be recognized governments. It was designed by our communities. Historically it was negotiated as a government to government agreement with Canada. It continues and remains to be First Nation driven. The minister and the prime minister and anyone else doesn't tell us what we need and have to do. It's our communities that direct us and we advance this and it remains self-driven in that perspective. It enables First Nations communities to develop and enact key land laws and tools under their own form of governance with the land code. This process just basically describes the two functions. My role as chairman of the Lands Advisory Board is really the political role. My counterpart is former chief Austin Baer who chairs the resource center and it was created to discharge the Lands Advisory Board's technical and support service functions to the First Nations that wanted to develop land codes or who became operational. So this slide here really gives a little bit more of a perspective of it. I'm elected by the chiefs in Canada who are operational. They need to choose a chairman. They've chosen me. I've been chairman since day one and some point in time they'll choose another chairman. We have 15 board members that are operational and it's regionally represented. British Columbia being one region, Prairie's being another and of course includes the Northwest Territories now and then the East. We haven't moved. We are in the Maritimes but it's considered part of the East and at some point in time it may be that we'll expand to the Maritimes with another region. It supports the First Nations in accordance with the principles contained in the framework agreement. That's my role and that's how I operate and how our Lands Board operates with the operational First Nations. The resource center of course again the administrative technical body. It does the day to day operations. It handles the monies that are received from Canada. It directs those monies to the First Nations. It does administrative and technical advice and support services to the First Nations involved. So what's been the progress and what's our future of the Lands Advisory Board and the Resource Center? So since 1996 and since the passage of legislation in 1999 we've moved from 14 First Nations to 165 that are actual signatories. Right now I deal with directly or indirectly with 227 give or take First Nations on a daily or monthly basis. Three signatories have moved on to full self-government or treaty, modern day treaty and we have many communities who want to be involved. The budget of 2018 of the federal government committed to add 50 new signatories over a five year period and that was done in 2018 and I'm expecting more signatories before April 1st hopefully of this year to be allowed to be developmental and to be supported by government so we can finance them to to get into development phase so they can develop their land codes their laws and then vote and see if they pass it. We have a strategic business plan five year plan and our objective is to make all First Nations that want to be aware of it to know that they have the opportunity and they can be part of this land management process and it's up to each First Nation to decide how they wish to govern their lands. We have the basic principles contained in the framework agreement that they would follow. We want to ensure and assist that they have the capacity to be able to govern their own lands and their resources, the environment making environmental laws and things of that nature. We want to ensure that there's effective land, environment and resource governance in place so that they know how to govern. It's been a long time for some and of course the decolonization community by community of this process and indeed it is a government to government relationship and there's been a lot of strengthening as a result of that and a lot of capacity building. We've done six amendments to the framework agreement since 1996. We're working on our seventh amendment right now with Canada. We're looking at now of enhancing the authorities even further and that would include things like control of oil and gas interests to deal with wheels and estates to deal with land registration matters to recognize and to implement Aboriginal title and having authority and jurisdiction over First Nation traditional lands. That's a broad objective and that's what our objective is. You've heard of the Supreme Court of Canada case, the William case, the Honeywitine case north of Williams Lake. The Supreme Court of Canada said they have Aboriginal title to their lands. The problem is there is a vacuum that exists over those hundreds of thousands of acres that have now been recognized. Who has the jurisdictional control over those lands? The Supreme Court of Canada has said the Forestry Act of the province doesn't apply so what does apply? We've said we can have this clarity if we have an amendment to the framework agreement and to legislation which allows for the First Nations to be involved over their traditional territories and Aboriginal title lands. This is a broad concept and we're moving and we're serious on that. We're looking at funding issues now. Longer-term funding, 10-year funding has been talked about by government and we're in that process right now. Funding was built in escalations not where parties are given dollars and 25 years later there is no no further dollar. You're living with with 20 years of non-increase that doesn't fly in today's age. We're looking at renewing the the First Nation Land Management Act to make it more consistent with reconciliation which means that they follow the principles contained in that government-to-government framework agreement from 1996. The legislation has generally followed it but there are sections in it which Canada has put in certain language that complicates it or confuses it and we are saying as First Nation peoples we need clarification. It could be made much clear and we're working to ensure that and it will go a long ways I can assure you towards reconciliation by recognizing what really truly was negotiated and agreed to by government. So we have been working with other institutions as I previously mentioned that we have a protocol agreement in place with the the First Nations financial management board with the First Nations finance authority and with the First Nations tax commission and that protocol agreement really outlines the respect that we must give to one another that we have individual initiatives be it legislative, political, technical or organizational mandates but we agree to be cooperative with one another to work with another to support our endeavors and collectively we believe we are stronger as an entity by doing so. We want to facilitate further opportunities for greater economic development and growth within First Nation communities and include some important points like new infrastructure being designed and developed increased revenue opportunities. This is what we're working on if a government is going to be recognized as a government you have to have revenue making capacity whether it's a power to tax, to raise money, to share automatically in renewable or non-renewable resources that's what is needed and that's what reconciliation must be directed towards if there's going to be a satisfactory advancement of reconciliation in this country. That's what we're working on. New economic development opportunities. We want to see an increased fiscal and administrative independence from other governments. Several years ago as being chief I made a proposal to the then minister of Indian affairs and I said to the minister that we wanted to be totally independent fiscally with Canada. We don't need any more dollars from you for social services or health or education or whatever. We don't need it. Provided, provided we had control of our own taxation that flows from the reserve hundreds of millions of dollars of that from our population of over 10 000 people with businesses and everything else. We wanted to have a good share of that and with that proposal we had was Mr. Minister of Canada, we are totally independent. We don't need a cent from you. We will create our own governmental authorities and run like that. That would have been amazing. It hasn't happened yet but it's still a dream that I have. Improved financial management. Improved administrative efficiency. We've talked about the 10-year funding applications now and the thing is to include positive actions to support climate change. It's a big topic. A lot of work has to be done in the First Nations as governmental authorities must be prepared for it and must work towards that climate change because it will affect the lives of their peoples. Environmental integrity is all part of that process. So what about collaboration? What about collaboration with this province with other provinces? What about DC's reconciliation initiatives? Well right now as you all know this province is working towards legislation that will further develop the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Undripped legislation they call it. That is happening and it needs to happen in my opinion quicker. It's been delayed I suspect because of roadblocks and the pipeline issues and things of that nature. It may have damaged some of the movement but it still needs to be done. Collaboration with the government, with First Nations means revenue generating capacity. Having the power to create wealth. This is what I see happening and why we're working with these other institutions to make it happen. And we want to have a right to the renewable and non-renewable natural resources. We need royalties. The First Nations claim ownership of this country through their rightful claim as being the First Nation peoples. They feel they have a right to the forest. They protected the forest and the minerals and what's contained in it the fish in the wildlife for centuries, for thousands of years. They should have a say as to how it's going to be developed or how it's going to be spent and there has to be a balancing of that. That's reconciliation. Authorities perhaps in things like gaming, jurisdiction over things of revenue generating capacity that might include cannabis and the sale and growing of cannabis. Having the BC Indian Resources Minerals act of precious metals, making sure that First Nations have a right to that and not having that saying by the government that they control all the precious metals even on reserve lands, nonsensical from First Nation perspective I can assure you. No one on WFN lands, for example, is going to claim the mineral rights that might exist, gold or otherwise that exists on those lands and say that the BC Indian Resource Minerals Act prevents you from ownership and having the right to mine that or to take advantage of that. That is nonsensical and these are some of the things that reconciliation has to do to change. Water, who has the rights to water? First Nations say they have the rights to water. That's a big topic and there's got to be a lot of discussion about that. Expanding as I mentioned the traditional ownership and advancements for jurisdiction over Aboriginal title lands and having further powers of enforcement. All big topic areas. This slide carries on some of the parcel fabric renewals. There are still existing reserve boundary disputes that exist. Certain reserves have not clarity on their boundaries after in some cases over 100 years. There's still some old railway line beds that still exist in the federal government that need to be transferred to the First Nations. Changing of rivers and erosion and boundary changes. There's some differences. They have to be sorted out. So there's going to be further collaboration with the province to resurvey some of those lands and to develop a resolution process where required. And this needs to happen. Involvement with the BC roads committee. There's a lot of roads that you may not be aware of that doesn't have proper orders and councils. There are some rights of ways for BC hydro lines and so forth that are problematic because they're not in the right spot. These are some of the issues that have to be cleared up. So there's work from ISIS, the Department of Indian Affairs, British Columbia, Natural Resources, Canada and our Lands Board and Resource Centre to help assist to resolve some of these issues. Issues sometimes created by Ordering Council 1036. 1036 for those of you who may not be familiar was Ordering Council passed by the province in 1938 and it was a process where much of the reserve lands were finally recognized after long been advanced in the mid to 1980s to 1986. In that time frame they didn't get to become reserves until 1938. Finally the Ordering Council but there was a right that the province retained to resume up to five percent of the of the lands. And there's a lot of issues that have developed from that. These are still in many respects outstanding and they need to be clarified. This is part of the collaboration with the province to reconcile. So that ladies and gentlemen gives a broad overview. I have remaining here some success stories here and I don't want to go and spend too much time. I want to allow enough time for questions and hopefully give you answers that that I have maybe for you. Very quickly I'll just refer you to some of the First Nations in this province who have landcoats that have furthered themselves. Some of these areas you'll be aware of perhaps Vancouver Island, Stumanus, 65 acre Oyster Bay master plan development. They've got a lot of commercial activity, credit unions, motel suites, residential development awards. 400 to 600 jobs been created there at Stumanus. Geocton at Chilliwack. Very successful, heavy into residential development in the process of developing 1200 residential homes that they're selling in the open market. At the time of this preparation there was 400 units planned for construction and that much of that has developed. Another successful community not far from here, the Saouk or Sukh First Nation, heavy into solar power, one of the most solar intensified communities in Canada on First Nation lands. They've been very successful with their 82 hectare oyster farm development producing over three million oysters and agreements they've reached with Asia to sell their product. The Basabi greenhouses that they developed and the ocean farming that's taking place, they've been very successful in that regard. A lot of this they attribute to the land code and having the powers to do certain things to make their own decisions. Seabird Island outside of Hope between Harrison Hot Springs and Hope, another progressive community. Development's happening there, agriculture, ecostation facilities, aggregate businesses, wheat and vegetables, hazelnut farm, truffle farm and a number of things are happening there. These are just a handful of the success stories. So in closing we deal and are very active with one out of three First Nations in Canada. We work with them to assist them to help reconcile their differences and to advance their lawmaking powers. Hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars have been contributed into the overall Canadian economy. Thousands and tens of thousands of jobs have been created by these communities and there's been a lot of wealth. Ten times investment by Canada at what KPMG is estimated. Pretty significant, that's a pretty good investment by Canada to invest in First Nations. There has to be clarity in this province. If this province and Canada is going to advance there has to be a working relationship, there has to be a balance of that recognition. That's what reconciliation is ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for listening to me. It's been an honor to be before you. Lim Lim, thank you. Thank you Robert for a very engaging and enlightening presentation. We're going to move now into question period. For the questions we're going to run mics to you. We would ask that you wait for it to arrive. Speak clearly and allow everyone to hear your question so they get some context for Robert's answers. With that let's begin. Hi and on behalf of the crowd thanks again. My name is Trevor. I didn't know about any of this stuff. So I guess my question is a sort of a BC versus rest of Canada question in that we understand that like there were treaties across most of Canada and basically other than a couple up north not in BC. So when you spoke about the process expanding out to include traditional like off reserve lands is that something that could only happen in BC or could also be happening in other parts of Canada? If it happened in other parts of Canada I think the courts have opened it up particularly to those that are non-treaty First Nations and I would estimate that at probably one-third the First Nations in Canada are non-treaty. Most of which resides within the province of British Columbia. There's a Douglas Lake treaty of course or a Douglas treaty here on Vancouver Island that you're probably aware of and you've got treaty number eight in the northern regions but other than that no other treaties exists other than the modern day treaties that Salaman and Tawasin have recently entered into. So yes there is it doesn't necessarily apply just to British Columbia it can apply to other communities there are other communities that certainly don't have treaties in in Canada as well. Thank you. I could echo that sentiment. I'm curious how you see local governments in regional districts Miss Polly is fitting into this process and supporting. Well thank you. I think local governments I think all forms of government have to be involved in when we're if you're talking and referring to reconciliation and and advancing of of things because I think there's overlapping. I mean just look around us here right now look at the Squimalt and look at Songhees. There's probably water issues, water pipe issues, power issues, sewage issues, water drainage issues. So there has to be involvement by those governments that are First Nations and the city of Victoria and Squimalt so automatically there has to be involvement and I think this is something that has to continue. I know in the past in in dealing with land referrals for example it's a it's a big issue. Land referrals might be any lands that are crown lands or watershed lands where everyone is impacted. Too much water in the mountains could cause floods the First Nations municipal governments and the and those that are involved have to be dealing with some of those issues. So I think those are very significant so there's no getting away of having municipal governments not being involved in one form or another. So to carry on from the local government thing when you were talking about a revenue creation you didn't mention property taxes. Yes. Well property taxes is a major thing. An example my community at West Bank has over 10,000 residents right now. Some are in the area between 14 and 15 million dollars annually as collected on property taxes all going into the hands of the First Nations. Some of that money is shared with regional district and with municipal type services fire protection that sort of thing and most of it is retained by the First Nations community. So it is a revenue generating capacity certainly in communities like West Bank. Other communities for example it may be in the far north some of the more rural areas they don't have development therefore do they need taxation. Are they going to get taxation without taxing their people? Not too likely. So it is a revenue generating capacity for sure for the urban communities and a great number of the First Nations that are urbanally centered from coast to coast First Nations have property taxation in place now. So in other cases it may not be just property tax it may be social services tax for example. My community for example is not totally exempt as band members from taxation. Any booze that's purchased alcohol there is that GST component equivalent that goes to the First Nation. Any tobacco sales that GST portion equivalent goes to the First Nation. Fuel sales the same thing and other communities have different aspects of taxation. So these are all revenue generating capacities so these are these are these are in some cases very significant for some of the communities but having said that it's not enough to survive. You know as a government there has to be more than that that cannot be just well what can we tax within it has to be more broadly looked at and and so if you're a First Nation person and if you were part of a community that's been on those lands for thousands of years you look up on the road you see all these highway trucks coming down logging trucks tearing all the wood off there and you say I don't have a share of that. We fought for these lands you know we had wars intertribal wars to protect these lands and so forth and we need a share of that the minerals that might come from their pressures or not isn't there a right to have a share of of that these are things that are additional revenue capacity that's what has to happen this government federally and provincially have to find arrangements to accommodate those matters so that there's an automatic right that's what I see in reconciliation I'll go one step further and I and I'm looking at the pipelines for example there could be a quick and easy clean settlement if the government says all right First Nations you indigenous peoples now have ownership but with that you have ownership responsibilities of those rights of ways and those pipelines that in my opinion can solve a lot because I think First Nations would have a different perspective whether or not you're for against pipelines I don't know but I see there has to be a balance and I think that that would be a clear definition and a clear immediate in my opinion solving a lot of the issues by having this ownership when you have ownership you have responsibilities and and if you have responsibilities they've got to be exercised for the good and the will of of everyone community members just like you need jobs they need a future their children need an education and if jobs can be created and wealth developed from monies and royalties why not that's good governance in my opinion and I think these are some very typical quick-solving solutions if governments would wake up and people would understand that this would be better for everyone and there can be fairness here equity division I think could happen so I've said my piece in in in that regard and I'm hoping that governments will see their way and First Nations collectively will see their way to say let's really get reconciliation let's get this country moving in the right direction be mindful of the culture be mindful of the environment all has to be considered undoubtedly but there has to be a future as well and the future means in some cases jobs and employment and education and all those types of things so collaboratively sure a lot of work could be done I just hope it all happens in a quicker pace thank you very much my name is Susan low I'm from the housing policy branch previously worked with chris's group my question is about small reserve lands and for example here in victoria the song he's in a squimalt their reserve lands are very geographically small and I wonder if there's anything considered or in the works to consider what if the size of the reserve doesn't have the the revenue generating capacity to meet the current and future needs of that population what can be done I mean you can't generate there's no forestry to be had on the song he's reserve lands you know there's no pipelines that can run through the squimalt reserve lands they're they're basically city blocks in size so how do we provide a land code that actually allows them to be not just self-governing but self-supporting well let's just look around for a moment let's look at song he's in the squimalt and souk and beacher bay and communities like that say out jackton I mean some of these other communities that are right close by some of those communities again like you say you're very small in size reserve size yes there's only so much development you can have put in place if you don't have that much acreage but if you consider there's still resources out there you just have to look into the waters and the oceans and look at the fish you look at places like new zealand with Maori they reached a settlement there with the Maori people they the Maori people now have a great percentage of all of the fisheries around New Zealand and they they and they raise monies from that resource and they put monies into trust funds and that sort of thing to advance so fire a community here with a small land base I would look to the ocean and say I want to share of that ocean I want to share of the resources there and if the ships are going to be taken oil and it's going to be going through these channels here I want to make sure I got my royalty and it says that if I'm going to be affected or damaged by my fishing rights and this way of life and sustenance I better have a share of that these are the types of things I think could be done very easily and very quickly thank you hi I'm I'm Rob Dreski I work with indigenous relations we've been involved for 20 years now in negotiations and the fiscal side and very interested in seeing the studies you talk about in terms of KPMG and the return on investment a question about capacity when first nations take on land code and you have a resource center that goes with it do you have a sense or does the resource center provide guidance in terms of what you need to staff up what you need to what you need for facilities what you need to naturally to deliver on on program and services on on the rivers there's like how much how many people are working at Westbank specific to land management okay yes a good question a couple of questions in there I suppose when we're looking at capacity development every first nation is slightly different in one way or another and some of that capacity may be greater in one community over another so the resource center assists with that capacity development I've seen communities that have passed land codes that really had no land management experience but they wanted to have a change they wanted to say if we're going to do anything with these lands it better be under our guidance and for the simple fact that government can no longer expropriate that's pretty significant so some of these communities with little to no land management experience dived into it they passed their land codes today they're starting to thrive some of them may be more active than others some of them may be rural some of them may be far north and I know communities that are into the resource sector and forestry and so forth and they've looked to the forest and they've and they've built some logging companies and sustainable programs of tree planting and all that sort of thing and they've benefited if they're in far north that they have that resources others have looked at aggregates or other non-renewable development so each community of course is different in that regard so generally I've seen instances where our resource center will bring in some of our land management people that are experienced and say this is how you set up an office this is what you need this is this is how you develop your laws here's here's a stack of precedent laws maybe there's something in here maybe it's zoning maybe it's land use planning maybe it's environment maybe it's enforcement provisions or things of that nature whatever land management encompasses are provided to them and and then the communities are able to go through it and learn so capacity is developed I've seen other communities west bank my community has been in land management now for many decades and right now we have a very capable staff equal or exceed anything that the federal and provincial government has we can react fast we can react to issues investment proposals or land development proposals and make decisions fast without going through the bureaucracy we can cut out the bureaucracy and the tape that exists with indian fairs federal government and audits and all that site type of things and get down to the business and say we better move here and this is a this is an opportunity is not going to last past next month we better make a decision and let's move with it so in those cases that my community has moved ahead with self-government and we have developed that capacity and I think I'm going to guess we have probably less than 20 people directly involved with land management out of the population band population about 900 and administering you know to over 10 000 residents so but we have an intergovernmental affairs department which complements the land's department meaning that any issues that happen with the within the territory of of our nation there has to be consultation and like you like government we would charge for reviewing an application somebody wants to put a bridge across a river let's say at arrow lakes and there has to be certain collaboration so we have to have our own anthropologists or archaeologists or whatever involved we say here's the fee pay it and we'll send our people there and we review it and report back and then we either do business or we don't so that takes time and it takes resources and it takes experts and we have engineers and planters and that sort of thing so west bank is is is much more advanced than some of the other communities all in all the version of of capabilities and I think we all learn from one another I've for one have been throughout different parts of the world I've been in in the United States I've met with the Navajo Navajos are the largest group of indigenous peoples in North America there's over there's over four million people I believe if I'm not mistaken and I could be off a bit but to the largest population they control by voting governors in four states and I've met with them and they say we vote collectively we vote on block and and we need this governor here in Colorado or in New Mexico or in Arizona or whatever to say look we need to advance education we want gaming rights and so forth so we better vote to know we've got the right government that's going to support us so that's how engaged they are and I've learned from that a lot of peoples throughout the country it could have a lot more political clout if they band together not like society to get together and collaborate but ideally you could be smart and you could plan for it and you could change the course of history and I think those things happen but it's about what you know and I we've learned in dealing with the tribes in in the United States and they've learned from us they were really interested when I started talking about self-government and land code development they were really thrilled and they said we learned they said so we exchange a lot of ideas and that's why working with these institutions now with the with the with the groups now to collaborate and to say how can we advance ourselves more whether it's capacity development whether it's understanding or how do we what do we know about pipelines for example what do we know about oils well what did anybody know about them before they started making them you learn and that's what we're doing we're learning and we're learning very quickly we're knowing now that we just can't say here's a chunk of land here's a lease to it somebody pay the lease and say goodbye you develop it and that's it now I see First Nations saying that they want to be involved in the development of it you don't just give away three quarters of the farm you may want to keep keep the majority of that farm for the future and that's where First Nations that's how First Nations I think are thinking right now to be involved as partners joint partners or maybe doing the developments themselves and it's a learning capacity land management is is certainly an advancement there's always changes there's always technological investments GIS mapping and all these types of things all has to be learned and practiced and to give good governance to be able to properly design your lands and to have environmental laws in place and know what that all means these are all things that that happened we all share share that and I think that's the beauty of my involvement with the land's board it's a family its First Nations working collectively and we willingly share you may spend on one law piece of law maybe thirty thousand dollars to fifty thousand dollars develop one law you can share that one law to the masses pretty soon you can collectively you can reduce the costs of governance by using some of those that wording that might be in those laws and and that's the type of sharing so it's quick process and it is working and I think it's uh I think it's partly what government has to do I've been in politics a long time you know I was first elected to council in 1974 and that's a long time ago and so I have some involvement I've been to various departments eating fairies and other governments and I go in some of the departments and I can tell you firsthand some of these departments don't know what's across the door in the other department they have no idea and I've been to situations where they didn't have any ideas and I figured it out and said wow my god maybe we can take advantage of this I think we have time for one more there was I saw a question earlier did you still have a question has a land board been working directly with the selco team helping them with everything that they more or less gained through the title plane we have been involved I know the former chief Roger William I know some of his community members and elders and that sort of thing I was I was involved I was asked by the law firm when they were in their Supreme Court of Canada process to help try and negotiate a settlement between the province of British Columbia the federal government and the first nations up there so they are involved to this extent they they tell us that if we can get the amendment in place they are willing to work with us and they want to move the investment so they have clarity of jurisdiction over those Aboriginal title ends right now they're still in negotiations and to my knowledge they haven't reached any final consensus or final agreement and I I stand to be corrected perhaps but to my knowledge they haven't done so they have indicated to us and they've given us their support saying we can get this amendment through they would be involved and I think this would open up things for many other first nations as well because when I go to First Nation communities always always one person or another will say it's all fine to have the jurisdiction over these reserve lands that we have that we're standing on right now for example but our lands are bigger than that some of them maybe post should stamp in size but has to be bigger we have to have some say over here that's our history these are where 14 000 plus year old caves and artifacts exist we better have some say over there so yes uh honey routine and we in Lake area are supportive uh the last call I've had with them to move ahead and we hope to advance this its discussions now with the federal government to say open up this and there's probably going to be collaboration required with the province of British Columbia undoubtedly and other provinces as we move ahead with this concept I don't know if I should say this but I will when I was involved in assisting the lawyers uh in the Supreme Court of Canada case they wanted to to end it to move ahead quickly and I can tell you when I dealt with the Williams Lake tribal council the the six member bands there four of them were active trying to get the settlement two of them backed away and when those two backed away right at the beginning I think government saw a bit of a bit of a breaking up and they did not complete the mandates that we were on negotiations from that particular year from august to almost november it all was for nothing and the chiefs were very upset at the Williams Lake tribal council they uh when the uh when the provincial negotiator came back to deliver the message well what is it that we're going to offer they offered zero no lands no economic development opportunities zero the chiefs I think if they could have killed and got away with it they may have they referred me and the discussion uh in a heated heated back room involvement was it's just like that what happened in the mid 1800s when they were trying to protect their lands and they reached an agreement a supposed agreement with the the Dominion government of British Columbia and Canada to say let's see if we can resolve this and have some frank treaty discussions their chiefs were hanged when they were brought into Williams Lake and some of them were brought down here to the Beggby building and in Victoria and hanged here so they said just like it was then is the same response we got from the government's I can tell you the frustration you can imagine these chiefs that we were working there all that all that part of the year and we had commitments and promises all sort of out great but things change maybe people change maybe internal government changes in their thinking but I can tell you First Nations have troubles dealing with First Nations dealing with governments who are supposed to deal efficiently and effectively and fairly I can tell you first hand from being involved in it it has not been fair it has not been and it needs to be and that's how we're going to advance settlements in this country and move this country ahead if there's fairness and justice and recognition of that so these are all things that are elementary perhaps to some of us but to to the general public maybe that's not I don't know anyways ladies and gentlemen it's been a pleasure and honor thank you again for having me here thank you Robert once again for coming out and speaking to us thank you everyone who attended for your interest in engagement excellent questions look forward to seeing you again in future talks thanks bye for now