Principals and Parties

The Principals of the BC treaty negotiations process are the Government of Canada, as represented by the Prime Minster of Canada and the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada and the Government of British Columbia, as represented by the Premier of British Columbia and the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, and the First Nations Summit, as represented by a three-member Task Group.

The Principals are signatories to the BC Treaty Commission Agreement that established the BC Treaty Commission. The Principals’ responsibilities are established by their acceptance and commitment to the 19 recommendations of the Report of the BC Claims Task Force, 1991.

In December 2018, the Principals signed the Principals’ Accord on Transforming Treaty Negotiations in British Columbia. This Accord further strengthens the goals of treaty negotiations: recognition and protection of Aboriginal title and rights, nation-building, and establishing a government-to-government relationship.

In September 2019, the Principals endorsed the Recognition and Reconciliation of Rights Policy for Treaty Negotiations in British Columbia which was co-developed by Canada, British Columbia, and the First Nations Summit. The policy makes it clear that negotiations are based on the recognition of the inherent rights of Indigenous peoples.

The incremental approach available to the Parties, supported by the BC negotiations framework, is enabled by the RRR Policy. These incremental approaches may be applied to the following:

A) Core treaties, incremental treaty agreements, and sectoral treaties or agreements;

B) Resource revenue sharing and economic benefit sharing agreements;

C) Shared decision-making agreements (as envisioned in DRIPA);

D) Self-government, legal capacity, nation-building and governance capacity-building agreements;

E) Agreements and other constructive arrangements that address early land transfers and jurisdictional arrangements; and,

F) Treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements that address redress, and free, prior and informed consent, among others.

Rights recognition was always the intention of treaty negotiations. At the 1992 signing of the BC Treaty Commission Agreement, establishing the made-in-BC treaty negotiations process, Chief Joe Mathias proclaimed: “Negotiations, in our view, will not be based on that tired old notion of extinguishment. We will not tolerate the extinguishment of our collective Aboriginal rights. Let us set that clear today.”