Blame the Bureaucrats!

They’re faceless, stay in cubicles and if Nathan Cullen is right they are responsible for the current controversy over the First Phase of the Fairview Container Port and the local First Nation Bands which have been making headlines of late.

Cullen, the NDP MP for the Skeena-Bulkley Valley riding, took aim at those dwellers of the back rooms, the bureaucrats of the federal government, as easy a target as you could ever hope to find.

In an interview with the Daily News, the MP expressed his concerns over the state of the situation and outlined his plan is to have the issue returned to the hands of the politicians, who he feels may have the will to get a deal done and move the process along.

The full details of the Cullen contemplations, complete with his bureaucratic bypass were provided in Friday’s Daily News.

MP lays port blame at bureaucrats’ feet
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Friday, May 04, 2007

Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen is hoping to get the concerns of the Coast Tsimshian out of the hands of bureaucrats and back into the hands of politicians who have a will to see the Fairview Container Terminal move forward.

This week, other coastal First Nations announced their support for the Coast Tsimshian (Metlakatla and Lax Kwalaams) who say their rights and title have been ignored in the process of building Phase One of the Fairview Container Terminal and who and promised aid if necessary when it comes to blocking the opening of Phase One.

When asked what he has been doing about the conflict between the feds and Coast Tsimshian since the Coast Tsimshian went public with their intention to pursue the matter through the courts more than a year ago, Cullen said it is the federal bureaucrats who have been stalling and derailing any negotiated settlement.

The main place this is going to get settled is around the table with the feds supporting the initial offer that the port put up. Up until about two months ago and even a month ago, some of the federal bureaucrats have been working in direct opposition to a negotiated settlement and kept scuttling every deal that weve had, said Cullen, from Ottawa yesterday.

Ive asked for patience on all sides and its finally got to the where Ive got the Minister (of the Pacific Gateway David Emerson) for the last four months directly involved.

Cullen called it a yes minister scenario where the bureaucrats are taking way too much control of the file.

The minister has to regain control of them. I am actually quite optimistic we can get this thing settled and the minister has been made aware of what the consequences are if we dont get settled. Hes really concerned about it and my timelines are in weeks not months now.

The alliance backing the Coast Tsimshian, include the Haida Nation, which two years ago fought their way to the Supreme Court of Canada over the failure of the provincial government to consult them about the transfer of land on the Queen Charlotte Islands to Weyerhaeuser.

Lax Kwalaams and the Haida have both taken issue with the provincial governments failure to consult over the transfer of forest tenure in their traditional territory, with Lax Kwalaams fighting for their title over the transfer of tenure from Skeena Cellulose to New Skeena Forest Products.

The band was successful in October 2002 in preventing the transfer of the forest licence and tree farm licence of Skeena Cellulose.

In a previous interview with the Daily News, Reece noted that prior to the court action taken by Lax Kwalaams and the Haida over forest tenure: Industry and government showed little respect for our interests and our legitimate right to be an active participant in commercial and other activities within our traditional territory.

Since the SCI decision, Lax Kwalaams was the first band member to negotiate a forest agreement with the province that saw the band secure 650,000 cubic metres of timber and $6.85 million over five years, and the band has negotiated agreements with a number of forest companies.

We have excellent agreements with Triumph Timber, Brinkman & Associates, International Forest Products and Heli-Tech Services that are seeing us being able to become strong partners in business, job creation and environmental protection.

They now see this as good business practice, and have learned that we are not taking the position to stop commercial activity but want to strengthen it by incorporating our tradition, cultural, heritage and environmental values, said Reece.

When it comes to the Fairview Container Terminal, Reece and Metlakatla Chief Coun. Harold Leighton have both said they would prefer to see their communities involved and benefit ting from the development, but wont allow their rights and title to be ignored.