The provincial government has introduced legislation to ratify a treaty with the Kitselas First Nation in northwestern B.C.

The Kitselas First Nation has about 10 distinct reserves along the Skeena River, with most of its approximately 745 members residing in Gitaus, east of Terrace, and Kulspai.

The treaty grants the Kitselas ownership over around 382 square kilometres of land in its territory, along with self-governance in several areas, including the administration of justice.

Negotiations between the provincial government and the First Nation started in 1993 and an agreement in principle was reached in 2015, although the First Nation only initialled the deal in 2024.

On Wednesday, Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation Spencer Chandra Herbert tabled the legislation to formalize the treaty, the first step in the provincial ratification process.

“This province is a province that mostly did not do treaties, and we should have,” Chandra Herbert told reporters.

“We’re doing what we should have done 150 years ago, today.”

The legislation tabled Wednesday by Chandra Herbert is the second in as many days after Tuesday’s introduction of the K’omoks Treaty Act.

Before these announcements, the province has not seen the introduction of treaties in over 14 years, Chandra Herbert said.

Deputy Chief Coun. Cyril Bennett-Nabess said the historic moment has been over 30 years in the making. The First Nation voted to ratify the Kitselas Treaty last April.

“This treaty is not just a treaty for Kitselas, but it is a treaty for the province of British Columbia, a means of moving forward together,” he said.

“We overcame a struggle, an enduring struggle of over 113 years. From the time the Indian Act was implemented within our communities to the ratification of the Kitselas Treaty in April of last year.”

Lax Kw’alaams opposition

A nation neighbouring the Kitselas has called on the provincial government to immediately pause the ratification.

The Nine Allied Tribes and Lax Kw’alaams Band said in a statement they were “blindsided by the 11th-hour notice” of the plan, saying over 90 per cent of their territory would be impacted.

The group held a press conference in front of the legislature Monday, calling for the province to fix “fundamental flaws” in the treaty that they say threatens reconciliation and legal certainty.

“We are here to make sure that we’re defending our territories as the nine allied tribes,” said Stan Dennis Jr., Nine Allied Tribes hereditary leader and spokesperson.

“The message needs to be clear, loud and clear, that we are against it. They haven’t accommodated us once,” he said.

Bennett-Nabess says Kitselas First Nation is prepared to meet its neighbours and come to a protocol agreement that would speak to mutual concerns.

If fully ratified by all parties, the Kitselas Treaty will be one of the first comprehensive treaties to come into effect since the Tla’amin Treaty in 2016, the province said.