An overdue move to address native claim backlog

Give Stephen Harper credit for promising a long overdue plan to fix the way the federal government deals with native land claim issues.
This isn't about new treaties. That's a different, tough problem.
But while First Nations and the federal and B.C. governments have been struggling to sign treaties, hundreds of disputes about existing treaties and agreements have been piling up. Those are the kind of disputes that sparked protests and blockades, like the ongoing battle over land at Caledon in Ontario.
The federal government has behaved in a truly appalling fashion. The most amazing thing about the whole affair is how little protest there has been from First Nations as they waited and waited for answers. The average time to have a claim dealt with was 13 years.
The disputes mostly involve existing treaties, reached in the 19th century. The British were keen on treaties. They wanted a written record showing the natives had given up their land in exchange for compensation, even if the deals looked a little unfair.
But once the treaties were signed, things tended to slide a bit. A neighbour decided a chunk of reserve land would be a useful addition to a pasture. Settlers squatted on unoccupied land. The province wanted to put in a highway and decided it was easiest to go through a reserve. Or perhaps promised land was never actually included in the reserve.
The legislature, for example, is built on land listed in documents as being set aside for a reserve for the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations in Victoria. Somehow it just got taken. (The governments paid $31 million to settle the claim last year.)
As First Nations started relying less on the Indian Affairs Department and looked into their rights, they started trying to get back - or get compensation - for land that was wrongly taken.
The response was appalling. Claims were stalled and ignored. In 1991 the government acknowledged the problem, sort of. It set up the Indian Claims Commission, an appeal tribunal that could investigate claims and mediate or make recommendations.
It would be fair to describe the progress as hopeless.
The Saulteau First Nation near Chetwynd, for example, made a claim to the Indian Affairs Department in 1997 alleging it was shortchanged by about 5,000 acres under an 1899 treaty. The government didn't say yes or no. It ignored the claim for six years.
The Indian Claims Commission accepted the claim for review in 2003.
Only last month was it resolved, in the band's favour.
I was going to write that it was a typical case, but that wouldn't be true. It took 10 years. The average is 13.
And at least the government didn't fight the referral to the claims commission, as it did with the Blueberry and Doig bands in northeastern B.C. In that case, the government didn't respond to a claim over land taken for a road for eight years - and then argued the commission couldn't hear an appeal because the government had never turned down the claim. (The commission over-ruled the bizarre argument.)
The end result is that today there are 850 claims outstanding, about half. At the current rate of progress, some will still be unresolved in 2090.
The government's position is baffling. There are a handful of big claims. But about half are worth less than $3 million, even if the First Nations win. It doesn't cost much to compensate a band for the loss of some land in a remote area.
But the government wasn't interested.
Harper promised this week to change that, prompted by Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice, a former co-chair of the claims commission.
The commission is to be replaced by a new board, with the power to decide claims, rather than just make recommendations. There will be deadlines for responses. And, probably most importantly, the government will set aside $250 million a year for 10 years to cover the costs of settlements.
The changes are useful. The delays hurt First Nations, poisoned relations and increasingly have sparked disruptive protests.
Harper is doing the right thing in getting on with the work.
Footnote: The changes, which will take a year to put in place, were seen by some as way to reduce the intensity of an aboriginal national day of protest June 29, which some feared would include blockades. If so, the move may be successful. The claims plan was quickly welcome by the B.C. First Nations Leadership Council and national native groups.