The first urban, open-to-all-St'át'imc meeting was held in Abbotsford yesterday, monday January 25th. The meeting was opened with a prayer and an explanation of the agreement in the language from elder Clarke Smith. Clarke was critical of the agreement on Saturday but at this meeting spoke of the benefits, saying "the more I learn about this, the more I like it." After very brief introductions from the St'át'imc Chiefs, St'át'imc legal council, BC Hydro, and St'át'imc Nation Hydro, we dove into the presentation.
The presentation has been made much more visual compared to earlier versions, and flowed fairly smoothly. The introduction, which talks about the background and negotiations, lasted about 15 minutes. St'át'imc legal council Brenda Gaertner took over the presentation to give an overview of the agreements and presented for about 45 minutes.
The meeting grew very quickly over the course of the presentation, growing from about 40 people at 4:30 to over 70 people after 5:30! Our small-ish meeting room at the Super-8 Hotel was quickly bursting at the seams.
After a wonderful meal of rice, veggies, salad, fish and dessert, we reconvened for an open-floor session of questions and answers. Some of the biggest questions asked and answered were:
- Does the agreement give permission to Independent Power Producers (IPPs) in the territory?
- No, this agreement does not give permission. Permission is given or not given by the communities nearest to the proposed IPPs. The St'át'imc Chiefs do not have a blanket "yes" or "no" policy to IPPs, they are examined on a case-to-case basis by the communities.
- In the environmental part of the agreement, do the St'át'imc allow BC Hydro to use pesticides or herbicides to spray lines?
- The St'át'imc Chiefs have created a blanket 0 tolerance for the use of any pesticides or herbicides in the territory. There are only a few very rare exceptions, such as allowing a small dosage in the boundary of a substation, where weeding is too dangerous for staff.
- How will this benefit me, I live off reserve. I don't see anything in it for off reserve members?
- The agreement doesn't specify benefits for on or off reserve members. An on-reserve member could say the same thing. It is completely up to each community on how they want to spend the funds to benefit their members. We are encouraging communities and members to have these discussions. All comments from the surveys are being forwarded to the appropriate leaders, so they can see what ALL members want. The purposes of the trust are so broad that the money can be used for almost anything that will benefit members.
One of the most exciting aspects of the meeting was the number of youth who spoke up and had their voices heard! We announced the youth-only meeting that is planned for February, and discussed having more meetings.
Jacob Beaton
