Thursday, February 28, 2019

Metlakatla and Federal, Provincial governments move to final stage of treaty discussions

Residents of Metlakatla are one step closer towards wrapping up their treaty negotiations with the Federal and Provincial government, with a new agreement that will advance reconciliation and treaty negotiations ahead.

An announcement through the provincial government highlighted the progress that has been made in recent months of the discussions between the three parties:

The Agreement will guide the three parties in the development of a rights-recognition approach to a treaty and bring new momentum to treaty negotiations. 

A rights recognition approach explicitly recognizes that Aboriginal rights are inherent and will not be extinguished or surrendered, and seeks to build a collaborative government-to-government relationship that is flexible and able to adapt to changing circumstances over time.

Through this approach, the parties have agreed to move directly into the final stage of treaty negotiations and to explore a “core” approach to treaty.

Harold Leighton, the Chief Councillor of the Metlakatla Nation outlined the path that his community is following when it comes to the two other levels of government.

“This Transition Agreement and the strong foundation that it sets for our treaty is a positive step towards reconciliation. We look forward to working with both levels of government to realize their commitments to recognition and reconciliation. We will bring to our members a document that will allow our Nation to protect our rights, our territory and our culture for generations to come.”

Metlakatla shared the news with their members with an announcement this morning.

More background the process ahead as part of the transition to stage five can be reviewed here.

The final stage of the process, is that of Stage six, which is the implementation of a treaty, more about the Treaty process can be explored here.

Further notes on today's announcement can be found here, including the comments of both federal and provincial officials.

For more items of note from Metlakatla see our archive page here.


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