First Nations Chiefs' Entitlements

"Kwikwetlem, on its own behalf ... releases and forever discharges [the province of British Columbia from recognizing any aboriginal claim to Burke Mountain, a 236-hectare plot of Crown land near the Kwikwetlem reserve]."
"[The document] constitutes full and sufficient consultation and accommodation for all Infringement of the aboriginal rights and title asserted by Kwikwetlem."
Province of British Columbia release document

The provincial government is selling a massive swath of its crown properties on the slopes of Coquitlam’s Burke Mountain in an attempt to balance its budget.

This is an agreement which was negotiated by Ron Giesbrecht, chief of a Vancouver area First Nation and the province of British Columbia, effectively discharging the Kwikwetlem reserve from claiming territory which the province wished to make use of. There was no reserve treaty involved, other than that the area concerned, Burke Mountain, was held by the Kwikwetlem to represent traditional historical berry-picking and hunting grounds dating back 9,000 years.

Which gave them the legal right to claim territorial imperative. The release signed by Mr. Giesbrecht in his double-hat role of tribal negotiator as chief and economic development officer, enabled the province to sell the land to a private entrepreneur for future development. In March a letter was sent from the province to Mr. Giesbrecht containing a cheque in the sum of $8-million representing the province's part of the settlement.

As it happened the band had a 10% provision awarding Mr. Giesbrecht as the band's economic development officer as well as its chief, to take home $800,000 on top of his several-hundred-thousand salary. Other members of the 82-person First Nation reserve had no idea about these negotiations, nor the arrangement whereby their chief was given $800,000, on top of his already hefty salary, enabling him to take home that year in excess of a million.

Each of the 82 members of the band also received a 10% stake of the total payout, amounting to about $10,000 per member. Since the revelations of that payout were made public, band members have become opposed to their chief. Ron Jackman, who claims to speak for the band has lodged a federal court suit claiming that Chief Giesbrecht breached his duty to "obtain the free, prior and informed consent" of the band before committing to abrogating aboriginal title to the land in question.

Burke Mountain will no longer be accessible to the band for hunting or berry picking, if indeed they were using it for that purpose in the last while. Instead the land that they always considered theirs to be used in the traditional manner is now slated to become a massive housing development site, to increase the size of Coquitlam. The sale of the land helped the province to balance its budget.

Burke Mountain Heights
Coquitlam From $900,000's

Burke Mountain Heights

Coquitlam
From $900,000's

Under the Indian Act, a government possession of First Nations land requires an informed vote by all First Nation members involved in the transaction. In the agreement signed for the Burke Mountain deal no such vote had ever taken place; band members had no idea what was transpiring, discovering its existence only when news of their chief's enormous take home pay for the year became public knowledge and an embarrassment to them.

Just another of so many examples of what passes for responsibility on the part of band leaders representing the interests of their reserve members in honour of their very special bond to the land. And in the process enriching himself right royally.