No community consultation for a 10% counter-offer.

Who are the chiefs negotiating on behalf of???

Half of our memberships for our 4 bands are off-reserve, when were we or better yet, when are we going to be consulted in regards to "asking" for 10% of our traditional territory back?

When will the collective Secwepemc Nation agree to the carving up and selling off of Secwepemculecw?

Once again I ask, where is the publicly outraged southern Secwepemc's opposition to the fraudulent 5% bc 'treaty' Process?

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Williams Lake Tribune - July 02, 2009


The Northern Secwepemc te Qelmucw (NStQ) have made a counteroffer to the provincial and federal governments as part of the ongoing treaty process.
At a public information session late last week in Williams Lake, chief provincial negotiator Roger Graham said the counteroffer had come the morning before.
The counteroffer is for roughly 10 times the amount of land in the government’s offer, and from three-and-a-half to four times the amount of cash. Graham did not offer specific numbers.
NStQ principal negotiator Jim Doswell said the land counteroffer was about eight per cent of the NStQ traditional territory, which stretches from the north end of Quesnel Lake almost to Clinton, and from just east of Alexis Creek to Wells Gray Park.
Doswell said the governments’ original offer was for less than one per cent of the NStQ traditional territory, and noted that half of the $42 million in cash offered by the government would go back to federal government in debt.
Under the treaty process, the First Nation borrows 80 per cent of the funds needed to negotiate the treaty.
In a confidential offer made in February, the governments offered approximately 50,081 hectares of provincial Crown land, the transfer of title of approximately 11,668 hectares of existing NStQ reserve lands to a NStQ government, a capital transfer of $30 million to the NStQ government paid out over a number of years, and a $12-million land fund to allow the NStQ to purchase private land on a willing buyer/willing seller basis.
“Clearly we have some very wide differences, but we will take the time to do the work to move forward,” Graham said, adding he hoped to hold more public meetings in the future.
“We have made fairly significant process,” Graham told the 40 people in attendance at the information session.
“We hope to bring this to the agreement-in-principle in the near to medium future.”
He said the treaty process with the NStQ — made up of the Canim Lake Band, Williams Lake Band, Camnoe Cree/Dog Creek Band, and the Soda Creek Band — began in 1994.
See FIRST, page A2
\The process is at the fourth of five stages, where the three parties work to sign an agreement-in-principle on the general terms of land and cash to be offered. After that, the parties start final treaty negotiations, a process that could take another two years to complete.
The lands ultimately accepted in the treaty become Treaty Settlement Lands (TSL), owned and governed by the First Nation. The Canadian constitution, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Criminal Code, and other general federal and provincial laws would would still apply on TSL. The First Nation would have a democratic government with a constitution, and would have law-making authority over its members and resources on TSL, and would make decisions in such areas as health, education, and child welfare. It would be able to levy taxes and fees and to negotiate with other governments.
Graham said Canada and B.C have agreed to explore revenue-sharing with the NStQ.
Before a treaty can come into effect, a “significant” percentage of NStQ’s members must agree to it, and it must be approved in legislation by the provincial and federal governments.
“Our intention is to negotiate until we have a treaty,” Doswell said. “There has to be a resolution to this — we’re here today because there is no certainty over the land we stand on today.”
In response to concerns over grazing tenures and the ability for the public to use TSL for recreation, he said there should not be problems.
“It is not the intention of the First Nation to disrupt those tenures,” he said. “We don’t see any need to upset the current structure as long as there is a clear understanding that they are transferred at the value based on their use.”
He said there would be permitting structures put in place for recreational use.
Federal negotiator Ray Peterson said recreational activities will continue where the land is not otherwise private, similar to provisions in the Tsawwassen and Maa-nulth treaties.
Graham said he did not have a dollar figure on how much the process has cost so far — the NStQ were among the first to signal their intent to sign a treaty under the process — but said it has been “significant.”