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VOL. 27 NO. 16
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Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Overpass project getting closer PROVINCIAL TRANSPORTATION ministry officials have begun evaluating contract bids on a major project to improve traffic flow on the Sande Overpass. Expected to cost in the millions, construction to bring about a wholesale shift in how traffic leaves and enters the southern end of the overpass is to start late this summer and be completed this year. Chief within the work plan is to be the creation of a second left-hand turning lane for traffic turning east from the overpass onto Keith Ave. That’ll be done by converting the lane which traffic turning right from the overpass to Keith now takes. “What we did is add another right turn lane further up [the overpass],” explained transportation ministry official Darrell Gunn of the work plan. “Traffic that is [now] turning right will get into that [lane] so that the current lane, of course it will all be redone ….. will be converted into another left turn lane.” That new lane will come from widening the overpass to the west by using existing right of way.
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PROVINCE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA ILLUSTRATION
ILLUSTRATION SHOWS how traffic entering and leaving the Sande Overpass to the south will flow once a major construction project is completed. Work is expected to start later this summer and be finished this year.
Fish a renewed focus for treaty talks By JOSH MASSEY WHILE LAST week saw the landmark signing of agreements-in-principle outlining the key framework leading toward final treaty negotiations for both the Kitselas and Kitsumkalum first nations, another set of talks is also taking place. That’s because provisions for fish allocations and use aren’t contained within the two agreements-in-principle although they do contain
provisions for land, money, other resource use and governance. Negotiations around fish are instead contained within those separate talks. Fish provisions had been missing from the agreements-in-principle because of a general federal government policy dating back several years that they wouldn’t be negotiated within those agreements. That stems from a federal royal commission into
the decline of the Fraser River sockeye runs of 2009 and the federal government wanting to first consider the Cohen Commission’s recommendations. But that changed last year, says Hilary Lightening of the Tsimshian First Nations Treaty Society which represents Tsimshian First Nations in those talks. “Canada opened up the fisheries mandate in late December of 2014, and the Kitsumkalum, Kitselas and
Metlakatla are currently negotiating the fish chapter,” said Lightening. “Basically the feds just said it’s currently under review and it’s off the negotiating table,” she said of the implications following the release of the Cohen report. Individual Tsimshian First Nations will negotiate specific allocations based on their own requirements, said Lightening. “It’s not a one-size-fitsall approach. Each nation
has its interests in the fisheries component, but they are all at the table together,” she said. Although Metlakatla is not as advanced as are the Kitselas and Kitsumkalum overall treaty negotiations, it did decide to join the overall talks through the Tsimshian treaty society. Also in negotiation now are provisions surrounding migratory birds and how hunting and conservation of these species would be regu-
lated within Tsimshian treaty lands, something which is now a federal domain. Tsimshian negotiators had warned that final treaty talks, even if agreementsin-principle were reached, could not be concluded without an agreement on fish. Last week’s signing of the Kitselas and Kitsumkalum agreements-in-principle confirmed details first reached two years ago.
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Fun, fun, fun
Healthy games
Kick, spike, score
Check out photos from some of the events at Riverboat Days \COMMUNITY A10
Counsellor getting rave reviews for his aboriginal gaming program \NEWS A5
Athletes of all ages take over the fields, parks and beach to play \SPORTS A25