The Northern Shuswap Tribal Council and its affiliated NStQ Treaty Group held an Agreement-in-Principle referendum on Feb. 11 to see if there was an appetite to move forward with the final agreement negotiations.
However, there was a bit of a hiccup in the process.
The Williams Lake Indian Band (WLIB) poll, with 385 eligible voters, was suspended at the polling station because of the disruptive actions of a small group of protestors who were predominantly comprised of non-WLIB community members, according to the NStQ leadership.
The band council has decided to provide the full 70-day notice to membership in order to include “mail-in” votes from all those who don’t live in the area.
The full re-vote will take place on April 28.
The four First Nation communities that make up the Northern Secwepemc te Qelmucw (NStQ) are the Canim Lake Indian Band (Tsq’escen’), Soda Creek Indian Band (Xat’sūll), Williams Lake Indian Band (T’exelc), and Canoe Creek/Dog Creek Indian Band (Stswecem’c/Xgat’tem).
The referendum question was: “Do you support the recommendation of the NStQ Leadership Council to proceed to Final Agreement Negotiations?”
The referendum will determine whether the NStQ membership wants to continue into the final negotiations stage (Stage 5) of the six-stage made-in-B.C. treaty process.
The results of the referendum have been confirmed:
• Canim Lake Band (458 eligible voters): yes – 125; no – 84
• Soda Creek Band (336 eligible voters): yes – 90; no – 48
• Canoe Creek/Dog Creek Band (582 eligible voters): yes – 113; no – 72
Canim Lake Band Chief and NStQ vice-chair Mike Archie says there was a good turnout in his community.
He adds the majority of the voters were in favour of moving forward to Stage 5.
Archie notes there was a lot of effort to get information out to the band members so they could make an informed vote.
Now, the NStQ must wait to for the WLIB vote results to see if it joins the three sister communities moving forward in treaty process.
If membership votes “yes” to moving forward into Stage 5, that process could take anywhere from three to five years to complete, according to the NStQ leadership council.
It is during this stage the three parties to the final agreement – federal government, provincial government and the NStQ – will have to work through a lot of items of interest.
Chief Archie says there is a lot of work ahead because there are several areas to negotiate.
“Specifics of the agreement will take some time. There are key issues that we have to make sure our people are comfortable with, and there are things we would like to see in the agreement.
Once a “final agreement” is negotiated, the NStQ membership will conduct a final vote on whether to accept the negotiated treaty, before its “Implementation” (Stage 6) can begin.
This is a process the NStQ has been involved in since 1994.
