OTTAWA - A Tory MP ramped up an attack on his own government Thursday by making public a letter to the prime minister critical of a $120-million native treaty to be announced today.
The expected deal with the Tsawwassen band will reveal a "seriously flawed and quite dangerous" treaty that will be entrenched forever in the Constitution, warned John Cummins, MPfor the British Columbia riding of Delta-Richmond East.
"If (Indian Affairs Minister Jim) Prentice goes forward with signing the Tsawwassen final agreement, I will be forced to vigorously oppose Mr. Prentice and the treaty which he has signed," Cummins wrote to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a copy of which was provided to the Vancouver Sun.
Cummins is campaigning aggressively against attempts by the B.C. and federal governments to accelerate the B.C. aboriginal treaty process, which has come under heavy criticism for not producing a single finalized treaty despite $1 billion in taxpayer costs over 13 years of negotiations.
The two governments have already initialled the $76-million deal with the Carrier Indians of the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation near Prince George.
Prentice will announce the Tsawwassen deal today and a third treaty, with the Maa-nulth First Nations on Vancouver Island, in Victoria on Saturday.
In his letter, Cummins alleged some of his constituents on treaty lands will be subjected to taxation without representation.
The riding itself will see prime farmland turn into an "industrial wasteland," while the prized Burns Bog conservation area will be used by band members to hunt, gather and cut trees, he wrote.
Tsawwassen Chief Kim Baird did not respond to an interview request.
Harper, a prime minister known for accepting little if any caucus dissent, won't punish Cummins, Prentice said Thursday.
"There's room for reasonable disagreement amongst people on some of the public policy issues," he said.
"John and I have a respectful disagreement. I don't agree with his position on treaties and in particular on fisheries issues in the treaties."
Prentice and Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn made public a joint letter to Cummins stating the B.C. treaties being struck won't shut out 15,000 commercial and 300,000 sport fishermen.
"It must be clear that any access to a commercial fishery facilitated through treaty would be within an integrated and regulated commercial fishing regime and not a segregated fishery," they wrote.
In July, Harper vowed to oppose "racially divided" fisheries on the West Coast.
Vancouver Sun
