Mayor's Report - September 1999

As reported last month, the Lower Mainland Treaty Advisory Committee (LMTAC) released its "First Principles" document in July for review by its 23 member municipalities. This is an exceedingly important document that details some 35 principles as key concerns that treaty negotiations must consider. LMTAC members, including the GVRD, are to provide comments and further input by September 30th. The Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) has prepared comprehensive comments that will go before the GVRD Board on October 1st.

Given that the property, financial and service interests of the GVRD potentially may be affected by treaty negotiations, the GVRD Board, at its meeting last November, directed that GVRD's interests in treaty negotiations be prepared for referral to LMTAC. On September 8th, the GVRD Strategic Planning Committee considered and endorsed a report detailing GVRD "Principles For Treaty Negotiations" that will go before the GVRD Board on October 1st. The proposed GVRD principles relate specifically to the Regional District's corporate functions. A total of 18 statements of principle have been identified, organized according to key treaty-related themes, including governance, lands and assets, fiscal issues, environment, access and consultation.

GVRD Principle #1 states that the Regional District's preference is "for treaty settlement lands to become subsets of the municipalities in which they are located". There are a number of reasons why this principle is being articulated by the GVRD:

• maintenance of existing boundaries, including rights-of-way and access;
• administration of taxation on treaty settlement lands on the same basis as on other lands for regional services in those municipalities;
• harmonization of standards and regulations including environmental, air quality, waste management planning, treatment and disposal;
• maintenance of community "vision" through official community plans and regional context statements in order to meet the Livable Region Strategic Plan objectives for the region.

GVRD's Principles also stipulate a common adherence to environmental standards, regulations, and enactments (including the Growth Strategies Act), access to treaty settlement lands for infrastructure development, servicing, and public use, and the GVRD's right to recover costs for services provided (Principles #3, #13, #16, and #17). The GVRD also proposes that an acceptable dispute resolution process, other than the courts, be established for the post-treaty era (Principle #5). The latter is important for the successful implementation of treaties.

The GVRD's principles also speak to what treaties should and should not include from the Regional District's perspective. That is, treaties should:

• exclude lands and assets held and designated by the GVRD, including leased lands, rights-of-way, and Crown reserve lands (Principle #7);
• protect private properties, including those owned by the GVRD (Principle #8);
• clearly specify expropriation powers of the GVRD and First Nations (Principle #9);
• protect water licenses and interests in land (leases) in GVRD-administrated areas, such as Indian Arm Provincial Park (Principles #10 and #11);
• address the responsibility for hazard management / emergency response (Principle #15), and
• define the consultation requirements of the GVRD and First Nations (Principle #18).

The GVRD and Local Governments, through LMTAC, agree that there must be no negative impacts on Local Government tax revenues resulting from treaty settlements. Any revenue loss to the GVRD or other Local Governments arising from treaty settlements must be fully compensated. Given that treaties are a tripartite process involving Federal and Provincial governments and the respective First Nations, the GVRD recommends that all related costs (in terms of lands and assets negotiated) must be the responsibility of the Provincial and Federal governments (Principle #12).

As with the LMTAC "First Principles", the Province must analyze the implications of the GVRD "Principles For Treaty Negotiations" and develop clear policies on these issues as part of the provincial mandate for the negotiations. Failure to do so will likely translate into less than successful treaty settlements!

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