The topics of discussion at last night’s all candidates forum, hosted by the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council and Hupacasath First Nation at the House of Gathering, varied widely.
The knowledge of the five candidates on First Nations concerns was tested; broadly on national approaches taken on issues like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 calls to action, to the very specific concerns of Nuu-chah-nulth peoples, including advancing their court-proven commercial fishing rights.
The forum, held to hear the views of the candidates of Courtenay-Alberni, was well attended by both aboriginal and non-aboriginal people, and dealt with aboriginal issues only.
An emotional question about the struggles faced by her remote community from Hesquiaht Chief Councillor April Charleson sparked the only real clash of the evening.
New Democrat Gord Johns took offence to the Conservative Party policies that put remote communities under continued stress, which had been expressed by Conservative candidate John Duncan.
“Everything is a challenge,” said Charleson. She said her community gets less money each year, and now can no longer maintain a boat to transport members who need services—for basics like food, health and education—back and forth to Tofino.
Hesquiaht is about an hour up the coast from Tuff City, where groceries and supplies can be purchased. Cuts to social assistance makes getting to Tofino for such supplies unaffordable, Charleson said, and leaves people stranded, particularly in the difficult winter months when the weather holds the community “hostage”.
“We are struggling. We are poor,” Charleson said, her voice breaking with emotion.
The candidate for the Marxist-Leninist Party, Barbara Biley, said it was a scandal that Canada doesn’t offer the support needed for people living in remote communities. Glenn Sollitt said the Green Party is calling for a guaranteed living income, an amount sufficient to bring everyone above the poverty level.
Duncan responded by explaining that changes to social assistance was an attempt to create a larger incentive for people to become a part of the workforce, but he admitted that the “formula doesn’t work very well” for those communities that do not have an actual workplace.
“Is this the solution,” asked the NDP’s Gord Johns, “to starve people?”
Earlier in the discussion, the candidates spoke about training dollars for aboriginal people seeking job skills. Duncan said a Conservative government provides funds to train for jobs that actually exist.
That statement would prove ironic, however, as there is opportunity on the West Coast that the government has, so far, refused to tap, some people would come to point out.
Hesquiaht First Nation is one of five Nuu-chah-nulth nations that proved in B.C. Supreme Court in 2009 that its members have an aboriginal right to fish and sell fish of any species into the commercial marketplace.
Canada appealed that court ruling, even seeking leave to take the case to the Supreme Court of Canada, which SCOC rejected, and now the aboriginal commercial fishing rights of the Hesquiaht, and the other four nations, are constitutionally-protected.
It is an unprecedented court ruling, and Canada is currently back in court against the five Nuu-chah-nulth Nations arguing that the government is justified to infringe on that aboriginal right. It leaves Nuu-chah-nulth Nations, today, no closer to being able to provide for their families and communities by fishing and selling that fish than they were six years earlier.
The NDP’s Johns told the crowd that the court case and the appeals of the decision shouldn’t have happened. “It shouldn't have been taken this far and this long,” he said.
Nuu-chah-nulth leaders complain that the court-ordered negotiations to allow Nuu-chah-nulth people access to their fisheries resources and the commercial marketplace are being frustrated by Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
Cliff Atleo told the candidates that an Order in Council called the Coast-wide Allocation Framework sets what is known as an endpoint, or limit, for any First Nation fishery.
This means that no matter what type of fishery the Nations negotiate, (Food and Ceremonial, Aboriginal Rights, Treaty Rights or economic fisheries), DFO has set an endpoint so that no Nation will achieve access past this point. This despite Nuu-chah-nulth Nations having an unprecedented commercial right to the resource.
The Green Party’s Glenn Sollitt, once a West Coast fisherman himself, said fisheries is controlled and driven by corporate interests. A letter from the fishermen’s union UFAWU/Unifor in April of this year seems to support this claim. See our link here: http://www.hashilthsa.com/news/2015-04-10/fishermen%E2%80%99s-union-casts-doubt-herring-advisory-board%E2%80%99s-independence.
Duncan said he doesn’t have a plan to help Nuu-chah-nulth break the impasse with Canada, but said he would be happy to work constructively with Nuu-chah-nulth-aht on it. All sectors of the fishery would like to see it resolved, he said.
Hupacasath Chief Councillor Steve Tatoosh asked about resource revenue sharing of the “real” kind, without the strings attached and all the hoops to jump through, he said.
Duncan told him that was, constitutionally, a question for the provinces, but he has heard that there are some “political operatives” working on taxation powers around resources for First Nations.
Liberal Party candidate Carrie Powell-Davidson said she would like to see jobs for First Nations where the extraction is taking place, though she wasn’t on sure footing with the revenue sharing question, she said. Powell-Davidson also promoted co-management of the central coast herring fishery.
In wrapping up the event, moderator and NTC Vice President Ken Watts thanked the candidates and the public for attending the forum. “Let's face it, we're all here to stay,” he said.
Watts also urged people to vote, “because it matters.” There are people who fought for that right to vote, so go out and exercise it, he said.
This was the second of three all candidates forums being organized by the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council. The first was in Campbell River Sept. 22, co-hosted with the Wei Wai Kum First Nation at Thunderbird Hall for candidates of the North Island-Powell River riding.
Some topics were common to both forums, including economic development and investments in the First Nations people and their communities.
As one person said in Campbell River, First Nations are the ones left to “clean up the mess” when non-First Nations move to other locations in search of economic opportunities when industry goes bust. First Nations remain with their territory and their obligations and responsibilities to that land, he said.
Most of the candidates of Courtenay-Alberni will meet again in Ucluelet at the Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ Government House on Oct. 9. The Conservative’s John Duncan has declined the invitation. The forum begins at 7 p.m.
