An angry response from landowners has derailed a proposal from four Treaty 8 First Nations to connect members with local landowners who wish to allow members to practice Treaty rights on private land.
The plan, which had near unanimous support from directors of the Peace River Regional District (PPRD), was withdrawn by Treaty 8 sponsors after its first unveiling to a June 8 meeting packed with local farmers, ranchers and other landowners.
An overwhelming number of residents attended the June meeting, enough to break the fire code for occupants at the Pomeroy hotel in Fort St. John.
Eventually, fire marshals shut down the raucous meeting due to overcrowding.
Concerns of local landowners included a lack of consultation, legality and liability of a land- sharing program, opting out of any program, effect to local food producers, impact to fee-simple property definitions and future subdivision approvals.
Dale Bumstead, with SCION Strategies Ltd., and Edward Stanford with Urban Systems proposed the land sharing program back in January to the PRRD and were in attendance to answer questions from the board.
Any program would be entirely voluntary, according to Bumstead, explaining that landowners can choose to participate if they like, noting local businesses, organizations, and individuals have expressed interest to him in connecting with their Treaty 8 neighbours over the past eight to nine months.
Residents were tense at the meeting, shouting and cheering their opposition, with one man interrupting to voice his concerns using one of the microphones.
“He seems to have conversations with a lot of these different groups, but you ever have a conversation with the taxpayers and the farmers from Fort St. John? Where was that conversation?” said the man of Bumstead.
Area B Director Jordan Kealy reminded the crowd to remain civil and thanked all for attending.
Eleven of the 12 PPDR directors had backed the Treaty 8 proposal, providing an insight into an apparently wide gap between district officials and Peace River private landowners.
“I feel horrible about some of the information that’s been shared about the insinuations, I guess, that we’ve developed a model that’s in some way moving towards allowing unauthorized, unapproved access to private land,” said Bumstead. “I have never, ever suggested that. I have never said that, never insinuated that.”
In the statement released June 28 Treaty 8 members Doig River, Halfway River, Prophet River, and West Moberly First Nations confirmed the initiative was intended to be voluntary and would not provide access to private lands held by owners who did not participate in the program.
"The initiative initially received support from 11 of the 12 PRRD directors. Unfortunately, disinformation about it was circulated online, and the June 8 PRRD committee of the whole meeting was disrupted by a crowd of angry landowners. The PRRD [has] subsequently rescinded its support for the initiative," the statement read.
