While the Sechelt Indian Band (SIB) is considering taking part in the Sechelt community forest, it has also signed its own five-year forestry deal with the provincial government.
Over the next five years, B.C. will pay the SIB about $2.7 million cash and give the band the opportunity to harvest up to 181,000 cubic metres of timber.
Chief Garry Feschuk and Michael de Jong, B.C.'s Minister of Forests, signed the Shishalh Interim Forestry Agreement in June 2004. Under this agreement, the province will pay the Sechelt Band $539,920 annually for the next five years. These "revenue sharing" payments, to be made to the band quarterly, are intended as an interim accommodation of Sechelt's aboriginal interests.
This agreement promises the Sechelts will be invited to harvest 32,540 cubic metres of timber annually for the next five years. The timber will all be within the Sechelts' traditional territory, which includes much of the lower Sunshine Coast and the lands surrounding Sechelt, Salmon, Narrows and Jervis inlets.
In addition, the Sechelts have a one-time licence to harvest up to 18,300 cubic metres in Block 1 of Tree Farm Licence 39 in the Powell River area.
The provincial government did not make a public announcement of its forestry agreement with the band but posted the agreement on the government website at www.for.gov.bc.ca/haa.
The province has signed similar agreements with 31 other First Nations in the past year and a half. The province budgeted $15 million in 2003/04, $30 million in 2004/05 and $50 million in 2005/06 for revenue sharing with native bands. The program is in response to court decisions that the government has an obligation to accommodate aboriginal interests when making forest management decisions, including economic compensation.
