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Westbank - The Okanagan Nation Alliance today made clear its opposition to the BC Treaty Commission (BCTC) Process. "The current treaty process contains three fundamental flaws," declared Chief Stewart Phillip of the Penticton Indian Band, "The first is that it still requires First Nations to extinguish their aboriginal rights, the second is that it does not take into account the Supreme Court's 1997 Delgamuukw decision and finally it attempts to remove First Nations historic tax exempt status for income earned on reserve lands."

"Nowhere outside of BC is the federal government attempting to remove the on-reserve tax exempt status," said Chief Clarence Louie of the Osoyoos Indian Band. "But within the BCTC the provincial government is insisting on imposing an 8 year phase in of sales taxes and a 12 year phase in of income taxes from the time a final treaty is signed. All this means is that not a single treaty in BC will ever be signed under the current BCTC process," predicted Chief Clarence Louie, "and that includes Westbank."

"Another key problem with the current BCTC process is that allows individual bands to enter into negotiations," said Dan Wilson of the Okanagan Indian Band. "The Westbank Indian Band is part of the Okanagan Nation and in fact until the 1960s the Westbank Indian Band did not even exist as a separate entity, it was part of the Okanagan Indian Band," Wilson added.

"Outside of our reserve boundaries, the aboriginal rights we have are held collectively as the Okanagan Nation, not as individual bands, explained Chief Dan Manuel Upper Nicola Indian Band. "Thus when the Okanagan and Westbank Bands went logging, their permits to log were issued by the Okanagan Nation."

In a desperate attempt to shore up their failing treaty process, on August 9th the federal and provincial government's signed a deal with Westbank allocating 55,000 cubic metres of wood per year, while at the same time refusing to negotiate with the Okanagan Band or any other band that remains outside the current treaty process.

"From a legal standpoint it will be interesting to see what the courts make of this situation," said Chief Dan Wilson. "I also predict that we will see a lot more First Nations logging this Fall," Chief Wilson concluded.