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For decades, federal governments have done their best to avoid dealing with the many intractable issues facing British Columbia’s First Nations. Provincial governments have been only slightly more engaged in trying to right many of these decades-old wrongs.
The B.C. treaty process established in the early 1990s has been a failure. In the intervening time, only two First Nations groups have signed accords. The blame for failing to reach more deals has been laid at the feet of Ottawa, which has preferred to study the often thorny problems emerging from negotiations rather than actually deal with them.
Any time a federal or B.C. government has tried to unilaterally exert rights in matters affecting the province’s First Nations, they’ve been slapped down by the courts. Still, it hasn’t stopped Ottawa from pretending and acting as if the rulings didn’t give aboriginal groups any additional powers. At least until now.
Suddenly, B.C.’s First Nations have become a top priority for Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government. It seems to have had a conversion on the road to Kitimat, the West Coast terminus of the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. It realizes that tens of billions of dollars in energy dollars are at stake.
Without First Nations consent and co-operation, a lot of that money could go up in smoke. As a result, we’re now entertained by the sight of Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver making regular sojourns to the province and talking about the importance of consultation.
You can excuse aboriginal leaders for snickering. For years, they’ve been unable to get Ottawa’s attention. Now that it’s dawned on the Conservatives that First Nations stand between them and energy riches, aboriginal leaders are atop everyone’s invitation list. They’re suddenly the cool kids in class. There isn’t a federal cabinet minister they can’t get on the line.
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