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Regional District and Lake Babine Nation hold Meeting
Lake Babine Nation (LBN) is large in both geography and population, making it one of the most powerful governmental entities in the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako (RDBN).
A contingent from LBN made an informational presentation to the mayors and directors of the Regional District at their June 22 board meeting, to update those officials on their Lake Babine Nation Foundation Agreement. This document is a working pact between LBN, the Province of British Columbia and the Government of Canada that was initiated in 2017, and first signed in introductory form in 2020. It’s latest development was a massive handover of Crown land this past January.
The Lake Babine Nation, like most original and ongoing Indigenous cultures overlaid by B.C., has never ceded their territory to any government of European root. Land ownership has only ever been assumed by colonial interests, not transfered out of Indigenous hands. The Crown agreed to at least a 20,000-hectare reparation to LBN on that theme, and there is more relationship-building underway between the three governance entities.
The contingent updating the RDBN board included elected chief Murphy Abraham (along with elected councillors Verna Power, Melvin Joseph, Mildred Alec-George, Jason Charlie, Debbie West and Wayne Johnson), director of implementation Betty Patrick, legal council Dominique Nouvet, CEO Monty Palmantier, chief negotiator Cory Waters, land strategies director Ashlyn Schwaiger, and provincial negotiator Ian Hollingshead, Andrea Follett from the provincial Ministry of Indigenous Relations & Reconciliation, and others (some in person and some by screen).