Indigenous leaders say they should have been consulted before B.C. government eased pandemic restrictions

Indigenous leaders say the B.C. government did not consult them before easing COVID-19 restrictions earlier this week, despite the province having an obligation to seek input from First Nations under the United Nations Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous people.

The leaders of the Tsilhqot'in National Government, Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council and Haíɫzaqv (Heiltsuk) Nation have written a joint letter to the provincial government to express disappointment with its decision to move to Phase 3 of its pandemic response.

They say the move will put Indigenous lives at risk.

"It's a slap in the face," Tsilhqot'in National Government Chair Joe Alphonse said from his home in Williams Lake, B.C.

"When you are in a crisis, that's when [government] policies are truly tested and as far as I'm concerned they get a failing grade." 

B.C. Premier John Horgan announced Wednesday that the province would be transitioning to Phase 3, allowing travel throughout the province and businesses such as hotels, spas, resorts and RV parks to resume operating. 

'Extension of racist and colonial attitudes' 

Indigenous leaders say allowing non-essential travel goes against restrictions put in place by many Indigenous communities to protect their residents.

"If COVID-19 happens in our community today, we have no capacity at our hospital, there are no beds," said Marilyn Slett, elected chief counsellor of the Haíɫzaqv Tribal Council, which is based in Bella Bella, B.C.

Bella Bella is one of many Indigenous communities in B.C. that issued bylaws banning non-residents from entering their territory.

Slett says leaving Indigenous people out of the decision-making about reopening an extension of colonialism.

"Our communities need to be involved as partners and anything less than a partnership is an extension of racist and colonial attitudes in health care," she said. 

Pressed on why Indigenous people were not consulted prior to making plans to further reduce restrictions, Horgan told CBC's On The Island: "There are going to be days when we disagree or when the consultation is perceived to be inadequate or... the response to every effort being made by other orders of government to provide information appears to be inadequate."

"That's just the way it's going to go, and I can do my level best to keep the interests of not just Indigenous people but all British Columbians at the centre of what I do ... this has been a weird ride." 

"I can't make everybody happy every day," he added.

Horgan's office told the CBC that its government has been holding weekly meetings with all affected First Nations in the province, but Slett says those meetings are 40-minute presentations with a 20-minute question and answer period — a process she says is not reflective of consent or consultation. 

"They haven't consulted with us but they certainly haven't received our consent," says Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council President Judith Sayers, who also refers to UNDRIP, which the provincial government enshrined into B.C. law in November 2019.

The declaration states that decisions that affect Indigenous people must be done in consultation and collaboration with Indigenous people.

Alphonse, Sayers and Slett, who represent more than a dozen First Nations across B.C., say they will support each other's efforts to restrict travel in their territories until basic safety conditions are met.

Those conditions include screening of non-residents to ensure travellers are not symptomatic or infected with the virus.

They are also seeking more rapid testing from the province — saying that there are only two rapid-testing kits for all Indigenous communities in B.C. — and culturally safe screen testing.

Call for specific locations of cases

The leaders also want more specific information sharing on COVID-19, such as more precise locations of where cases or outbreaks are.

The federal government collects data of COVID-19 cases on reserve, while the provinces gathers data for municipalities. Both share numbers of cases in each province on their websites, but there are not specifics about where cases are in Indigenous communities.

Alphonse says in April he learned by word of mouth that a former inmate from a B.C. prison that experienced an outbreak arrived in his community, yet he was unable to get information about the status of the inmate's health. 

"We just had to assume the worst and put our community on lockdown," Alphonse said.

The government cites privacy as the primary reason for not sharing more specific data, saying stigma could prevent people from self-reporting the virus. 

Last month, Indigenous Services Canada announced it would provide $250,000 to the First Nations Information Governance Centre to improve the availability of data.

But data analysts like Kim van der Woerd, a Namgis researcher with Reciprocal Consulting, say the money is not even close to what is needed to understand the spread of COVID-19 among Indigenous populations in Canada. 

Slett says she has not seen any federal funding to help B.C. First Nations collect data about COVID-19 in their communities. 

"Our priority is to protect our elders and our people, and this work is made much more difficult by B.C.'s refusal to provide case information," said Slett.

Balance economy and safety, tourist operator says

Indigenous people who rely on tourism for revenue say there needs to be a balance between the economy and safety.

Andrea Cranmer, the Namgis owner of the tourism company Culture Shock in Alert Bay, says she lost almost everything during the pandemic.

"We did have to shut down, we had to lay off all our staff, and our whole season is wiped out," Cranmer said.

But she says government consultation with Indigenous communities is still vital.

"There's a big push from the B.C. government to open up B.C., but they need to be asking us, our small villagers, if this is what we want," she said.