This week we salute shíshálh First Nation with a 16-page feature highlighting the Nation’s path to self-government and its celebration of the landmark agreement’s 30th anniversary.
The first of its kind in Canada, the Sechelt Indian Band Self-Government Act came into force on Oct. 9, 1986 under the Progressive Conservative government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. While far-sighted shíshálh leaders laid the groundwork in previous decades, it was the council of Chief Stan Dixon that finally made it happen.
Warren Paull, who sat on Dixon’s council in 1986, said this week that one of the Nation’s key allies was Mulroney’s Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, David Crombie. A former Toronto mayor who had a reputation for being more progressive than conservative, Crombie “went out on a limb for us more than once,” Paull said. “We adopted him because of the hard work he did for us. He took it on as a mission. Without Mr. Crombie, this wouldn’t have happened.”
Crombie steered the legislation through the layers of federal bureaucracy, including the Treasury Board, which Paull said resisted shíshálh’s demands until Crombie interceded at the 11th hour. “We wanted out of the Indian Act so badly, we didn’t want to take anything from Indian and Northern Affairs. We wanted a direct transfer from the federal government.”
Another coup was getting B.C. Premier Bill Vander Zalm onside. Vander Zalm, Paull recollected, “basically said ‘yep.’ Him and Stan got along infamously. They were birds of a feather. They were calling each other on a regular basis.”
As well as giving shíshálh the advantage of operating a municipal-style government, self-government “made it easier, by light years” for the band to pursue business ventures, Paull said. “Everything gets lost in the shuffle dealing with Indian and Northern Affairs. It moves at government speed.” One lost opportunity was a shopping mall proposal backed by a business study in the 1960s – before Sechelt had a shopping mall.
It took the right combination of personalities and political will and the iron determination of Sechelt’s First People to make history 30 years ago this month.
With the utmost pride in their achievement, our hands go up to shíshálh Nation.
