What’s ‘on the negotiation table’?
General provincial negotiating mandates were made public in 1995, two years after the British Columbia Treaty Commission, the independent ‘keeper’ of the process, began receiving submissions from Aboriginal communities. Federal negotiating mandates are not public, although interest presentations at specific negotiating tables provide a window into government positions on key treaty issues. Some issues are also non-negotiable. For example, provincial mandate papers state that privately held fee-simple lands are not subject to negotiations. It is anticipated that treaty settlement lands will largely consist of surplus parcels of federal and provincial ‘Crown lands’. There are, however, exceptions; such as when lands are made available for treaty settlements on a willing-buyer and willing-seller basis. Fee-simple lands may also be used for valuation or cost assessment purposes.
