Ironic or serendipitous? You decide. One day after the B.C. Treaty Commission's chief commissioner suggested that this province's treaty talks be shut down entirely if they cannot be sped up, a major health agreement is signed between B.C. First Nations and the provincial and federal governments?
The agreement will create a provincial First Nations health authority that will eventually determine where and how $380 million of federal money will be spent each year.
The decision, made outside of and separately from ongoing treaty talks, creates a governance structure that will ultimately be responsible for itself, however it interfaces with provincial health services.
Long overdue, perhaps.
Meanwhile, treaty commissioner Sophie Pierce is clearly frustrated with what she has not achieved in her three-year term and is asking for a one-year extension to her mandate. She told other media Wednesday that if problems cannot be fixed within that time frame, it should signal the end of a process that has lasted 19 years and produced just two signed treaties.
Pierce says 16 more treaties could soon be completed if there was any sense of urgency to the debate, but suggested the process has become an ongoing government program.
First Nations have spent $500 million on the treaty process to date.
Like Pierce, we believe in the economic benefits of treaties, but wonder if the federal government is more interested in a social agenda.
