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First Nations unfairly caught in 'fiasco' over caribou recovery

Caribou AdobeStock
(via Shutterstock)

Councillors in Taylor are condemning the division and outrage misdirected at local First Nations over caribou recovery plans for the South Peace, but say the province continues to bungle public consultations.

The district is expected to release a statement this week denouncing racism after pressure from the chiefs of West Moberly and Saulteau First Nations.

At the same time, the district will send a questionnaire about two draft caribou recovery agreements back to the province, calling it long on rhetoric but short on detail.

"The problem with this is that they're telling us what they're doing and asking us whether we support it," Mayor Rob Fraser said at a council meeting Tuesday. "They've decided on something that likely will work and then they've dictated it to us, and they've put a questionnaire in front of us. I disagree, not with the premise of the questions, but the fact we weren't involved in the development of that which will potentially impact us."

West Moberly and Saulteau have been in closed door negotiations with the provincial and federal governments to draft agreements that will limit industrial and backcountry access in areas around Chetwynd and Tumbler Ridge to save half a dozen endangered herds. The agreements call for financing for maternal penning, habitat restoration, predator control, and a new indigenous guardian program.

The negotiations have charged ahead despite repeated calls by local governments, MLAs, and industry for more than a year to be included in the discussions, and for an economic impact study to be completed. More than 30,000 people signed a petition calling for a stop to the negotiations.

The province has said it has a constitutional obligation to work with the two First Nations under Treaty 8 to draft the deals, prompted after the federal government declared the herds in the South Peace to be facing an imminent threat to their survival and recovery last year.

Caribou numbers in the central group of the southern mountain caribou herds around Chetwynd and Tumbler Ridge have dropped from between 800 to 1,000 in the 1990s, to around 230 today.

Though the province was honing in on the success of an established maternal penning and wolf cull program in the region, it also put the bands under a gag order that prevented them from talking to other political leaders in the region, Fraser noted. At the same time, the province was paying lip service to local leaders who had been pressing for more information over months of conference calls, he said.

"They were going to dictate this to us and they got caught," Fraser said.

First Nations are part of the solution to caribou recovery, but they've been caught up in a "communication nightmare" created by the province, Fraser said.

"This whole fiasco has not been the fault of the First Nation communities and the residents there. It's a communication nightmare driven by the bureaucrats at the province," Fraser said.

"This penning program and to the guardian program, predator management, this should be a success story. But in turn, this whole communication nightmare, has turned it into a hate exercise by some people in the province. This questionnaire is not helping with that in any way shape or form."

A wolf cull and maternity penning program has led to increased birth rates, plummeting death rates, and rising herd populations over the last five years, according to government scientists.

Still, the federal government has been pressured by environmental groups to issue an emergency order under the Species At Risk Act that would effectively shut down all industrial activity in the region. However, the province says its partnership agreement with West Moberly and Saulteau, as well as a separate agreement between B.C. and Canada under the Species At Risk Act would go a long way to avoid that.

But the questionnaire sent to the municipality is short on details and filled with misleading questions that have drawn harmful and hateful comments from the public, Taylor officials said. The questions also point toward a feared foregone conclusion that these draft agreements will be rubber stamped with no changes, they said.

Fraser said he hasn't personally seen or heard hateful comments about First Nation involvement in the plans, but noted he has heard from indigenous leaders about them.

Many people have different ideas about how to save caribou populations, Fraser said. 

"At the 11th hour and 59th minute, the province rolls this out and says, 'The feds, they're just going to shut down the whole country if you guys don't agree.' Holy, talk about putting your back against the wall," Fraser said.

"What happens when people get cornered? They lash out, and unfortunately they're lashing out at the wrong group of people."

- Matt Preprost, Alaska Highway News