Nisga'a critic named to treaty panel
Jack Weisgerber, ex-Reform leader, represents Victoria

Craig McInnes

Vancouver Sun, March 2, 2002

VICTORIA -- The B.C. government has appointed a harsh critic * of the Nisga'a Treaty as its representative on the B.C. Treaty Commission.

Jack Weisgerber, a former native affairs minister and leader of the B.C. Reform party, will join a representative of the federal government and two from the First Nations Summit on the commission, which oversees treaty talks in the province.

Those talks have all but stalled in advance of a referendum on treaties promised by the Liberal government for later this year.

Weisgerber was appointed B.C.'s first minister of native affairs in 1988 in the Social Credit government of Bill Vander Zalm. In that role, he helped get the modern treaty negotiation process started.

Since then, only one treaty -- with the Nisga'a -- has been completed and it was done outside the current process.

As leader of the B.C. Reform party in the 1990s, Weisgerber was * sharply critical of not only the Nisga'a treaty, but of the kind of offers being put together for other bands.

In a 1995 speech to the First Nations Summit -- the group that represents B.C. bands involved in treaty talks -- Weisgerber said the negotiations should involve primarily money, not land. He also said natives should emerge with the same rights, responsibilities, government services and taxation levels as all other British Columbians.

Weisgerber also pushed for a referendum on land claims, a proposal that was picked up by the Liberal party under Premier Gordon Campbell.

As B.C.'s representative on the commission, he fills a position that has been been vacant since Kathleen Keating stepped down late last year.

A representative of the First Nations Summit welcomed Weisgerber's appointment Friday, despite his past positions on treaties, because his role on the commission will be to push for the completion of treaties, not to say what the treaties should contain.

"As a treaty commissioner you have to set aside those views in order to function effectively as a member of an independent commission," said Kathryn Teneese of the First Nations Summit.

Teneese warned, however, that after a decade of talks, the treaty process is "hanging by a thread," because of the failure to achieve any agreements.

She said the referendum, which is opposed by most native leaders, has brought the already stalled process to a critical point.

"Is it going to be useful in terms of moving the process ahead or is it going to be one of the final nails in the coffin?" she asked.

Weisgerber said in an interview his longstanding commitment to settling land claims is more important in his new job than his earlier positions on what the settlements should contain.

"In this job, it would be totally inappropriate to take positions with respect to negotiations."

But he acknowledged that the land claim process is in critical condition.

"After a decade of negotiations without a treaty yet emerging under the treaty commission . . . . I think all of the parties are worried about the progress or lack of progress."

Teneese said native bands have already spent $150 million of borrowed money on negotiations.

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