Tsawwassen Treaty - John Cummins, MP

Total aboriginal treaty settlements in B.C. could cost taxpayers more than $113.9 billion, with the value of land package alone for the Tsawwassen settlement setting the bar for future settlement costs.

News Release - February 8, 2007

Tsawwassen Treaty - Vital Questions:
Questions that need to be asked and answered publicly prior to ratification of the Tsawwassen Treaty.

Article in Victoria Times Colonist - February 8, 2007

Treaty Worth Millions More Than Estimated, Says Tory MP

The Tsawwassen First Nation treaty initialled by the federal and B.C. governments in December has a value of about $300 million - more than four times the official $70-million estimate provided, says a Tory MP.

John Cummins' estimate of the market value of the 434 hectares of land the band is getting from the Agricultural Land Reserve was endorsed by an official with the Corp. of Delta.

Tim Koepke, chief federal negotiator on the Tsawwassen deal, said the $70.1 - estimate includes the $24.6 million valuation for the two parcels of ALR property.

Tsawwassen Chief Kim Baird, who called Cummins' assessment "misleading" and "extreme," said the band hired an appraiser who put the land value at $66.7 million.

LETTER TO EDITOR - VANCOUVER SUN - JANUARY 8 2007

Right to a Common Public Fishery Is Firmly Rooted (Published January 10, 2007)

There is no Canadian counterpart to the Boldt treaty unless one turns to more recent treaties such as the Tsawwassen treaty signed on December 8th by Jim Prentice. The Tsawwassen treaty would guarantee a percentage of the Fraser River fishery to the Tsawwassen band. There are some 90 bands on the Fraser. If all were to have treaties similar to the Tsawwassen, virtually 100% of the Fraser River fishery would be guaranteed to those aboriginals who had signed such treaties and would exclude those fishermen, aboriginal and otherwise who are not beneficiaries of one of these new treaties.

Article in Delta Optimist - December 20, 2006

Treaty Value Pegged At $70 Million

The Tsawwassen treaty is officially valued at $70.1 million, leaving some local politicians to say it ahs been purposely undervalued.

... the Delta Optimist estimates the treaty to be worth somewhere between $300 million and $600 million.

ARTICLE IN GLOBE & MAIL - DECEMBER 14 2006

MP Fighting Native Treaty Alone

John Cummins knows he's fighting this one alone.

First, the treaty recently signed with the Tsawwassen First Nation affects only his constituents in Delta, B.C. No one else much cares, especially politicians in Ontario and Quebec.

Second, criticizing the treaty means criticizing his own governing party and its leader, the Prime Minister. Few of his caucus colleagues have an appetite to do that. Most are trying to get into cabinet.

LETTER TO EDITOR - NATIONAL POST - DECEMBER 14, 2006

2006 Native Treaty Unfair to Canadians

What we do know is that the 2006 treaty provides not merely the opportunity to fish, but also a guaranteed quantity of fish that takes priority every every other Canadian. Some of the best farmland in the country is to be removed from B.C.'s Agricultural Land Reserve so it can be used for a port expansion, at great expense to the residents of Delta and of the Tsawwassen Reserve.

ARTICLE IN EDMONTON JOURNAL - DECEMBER 9 2006

PM Promises Native Band Share of Fishery - Treaty Clears Way For Port Expansion

Prime Minister Stephen Harper committed his government Friday to a modern-day treaty that will give a West Coast native band a guaranteed quota of Fraser River salmon, a mover that has angered one of Harper's MPs and disenchanted many of his long-time loyalists.

The treaty, also controversial because it awards the Tsawwassen First Nation more than 200 hectares of prime coastal farmland that can now go to industrial use, is valued by the native band at about $119 million.

Conservative MP John Cummins, a long-time loyalist, publicly criticized the treaty as creating a "racially based" fishery because a side-agreement awards the natives a share of the salmon fishery - from 0.7 to about three per cent, depending on the species.

That has also drawn the ire of some West Coast fishermen, who say Harper has abandoned his promise to oppose a fishery with preferential quotas.

But there are far larger stakes than fish at plan in this treaty.

Both the federal and provincial governments are hoping to expand a container port that sits just off the waterfront property of this tiny B.C. native band. A treaty will make it possible for a major expansion because the Tsawwassen want to use some of the 207 hectares they will be granted to build warehouses and storage facilities for the millions of containers that could be arriving from Asia in years ahead.

ARTICLE IN GLOBE & MAIL - DECEMBER 9 2006

Will Public Buy Treaties That Change B.C.'s Face?

The treaty signed yesterday by federal and provincial negotiators with the Tsawwassen band is far more controversial. And will likely be the deal that truly awakens British Columbians to what is afoot here and how the treaty process is going to affect their lives.

News Release - December 12, 2006

Read the Fine Print Before Signing Treaties

News Release - December 8, 2006

Treaty a Step Backwards

The Tsawwassen Final Agreement to be initialled today is not good for the people of Delta, the Lower Mainland, British Columbia or for all Canadians.

Victoria Times Colonist, Other Views, December 15 2006

Conservative MP John Cummins has a good point when he asks why treaties being negotiated with the Lheidli T'enneh, Tsawwassen and other First Nations need to establish quotas for food fish.

Letter to Prime Minister - December 11, 2006

The residents of Delta-Richmond East are perplexed as are sports and commercial fishermen by the decision to have Mr. Prentice sign the Tsawwassen Treaty on behalf of the Government of Canada on December 8, 2006.

Letter to Prime Minister - December 6, 2006

Only last week I raised concerns with you about proceeding with a Final Agreement with the Tsawwassen, an Indian Band in my riding. Today I am advised by Mr. Prentice that our government is signing the Final Agreement with the Tsawwassen by the weekend.

If Mr. Prentice goes forward with signing the Tsawwassen Final Agreement, I will be forced to vigorously oppose Mr. Prentice and the treaty which he has signed.

Letter to Prime Minister - October 24, 2006

The proposed Tsawwassen treaty must be reviewed to ensure that it does not treat the right to a common fishery as something to be trade in treaty negotiations. If aboriginals wish to increase their participation in the fishery they should use part of the money given in the treaty settlement to purchase licenses, in that way their participation and right to fish would be on the same terms and the same basis as other Canadian citizens.

The existing treaty mandates that direct federal negotiators were created by the former Liberal government and should be revised in light of the fact that Canada has a new government with a renewed desire to end policies that se rights as race-based rather than common to all citizens.

If fish continue to be on the treaty table then your commitment to end race-based segregation in the fishery will be only a memory. Treaty negotiators are carving them in stone in our constitution by creating two classes of fishermen. Your commitment was to end race-based fisheries, not carve them in stone.

Historical Document - October 31, 1848 - Queen Victoria Approves Public Fishery for B.C.

We the Lords of this Committee, have taken the same into consideration and having inquired into the whole matter, do this day agree humbly to report to Your Majesty that, in our opinion, it is essential, in order to ensure the more effectual colonization of Vancouver's island, that certain amendments should be made to some of the conditions inserted in the said draft grant, and that certain further conditions should be inserted therein; and we, therefore, humbly recommend that Your Majesty should cause amendments and further conditions to be inserted in the said grant, to the following effect; viz, --That the grant of the fishing of all sorts of fish in the seas, bays, inlets and rivers within or surrounding the said island be omitted from the said draft grant.

Historical Document - June 19, 1849 - Hansard - Debate on Vancouver Island Constitution

By the draft of the Charter as then proposed, the whole of the fisheries in the neighbourhood of Vancouver's Island would have been exclusively confined to the company. It was perfectly monstrous that the Colonial Office should for a moment have entertained such a demand, and still more so that Earl Grey should have approved of such a proposition. We have before us a copy of his letter approving of this monstrous monopoly. Why, it was a wonder that they did not call upon the Government for powers to exclude the colonists from the very air they breathed. This provision has now been altered, and the fisheries are left as free as is the air.

Comparative Cost Analysis on the Nisga'a Treaty