good for them, share the wealth and we all prosper.

No we won’t.. The government and aboriginals will.. Rest of us will just pay higher taxes

I agree with He Spoke. This is money that will now end up in our communities rather than being shipped to the overseas investors that will enable the 1% to just sit around watching TV collecting their royalties.

If the profit sharing rights are good for the 1% who take far more than their rightful share, than why not for first nations on their traditional territory?

Share, share, share the wealth.
Cigarettes and chocolate milk sales are already up.

The 1% actually invest (meaning put their wn oney) into the mine. For the First Nations, the dividends are given to them without them investing anything (except time to protest) into the mine.

Eagleone, I think that you are just a bit off base with your statement: “This is money that will now end up in our communities rather than being shipped to the overseas investors that will enable the 1% to just sit around watching TV collecting their royalties.”

This has absolutely nothing to do with money being shipped to overseas investors and will do nothing to enable the 1% to just sit around watching TV collecting their royalties.

Our Government receives mineral taxes/royalties from the extraction of minerals. These taxes/royalties are used to provide services to British Columbians. In this case, the Government will now be giving a portion of those taxes/royalties to a small group of people for economic development purposes.

I’m all for this, IF it leads to opportunities for the average Band member, opportunities that hopefully and ultimately result in fewer people collecting welfare and being reliant on Government (ie the taxpayer). The Osoyoos Indian Band is a shining example of a Band and a Chief that believes in a hand up and not a hand out. Unfortunately, the Osoyoos Band is the exception and not the rule!

Unfortunately, all to often, these funds seem to be consumed by Chiefs and Council members (think Attawapiskat). The Attawapiskat Band receives enormous sums of money from the Government AND enormous sums of money from the DeBeers Victor Mine, even though the mine is not on Band land! Is spite of the hundreds of millions of dollars that this band has received, the average Band member lives in abject poverty, while the Chief and Council live the high life!

I would hope that the local Bands that will be receiving funds as a result of the Huckleberry Mine have leadership in place that will ensure that their members receive a hand up and not a hand out. After all, these funds are not coming from the 1%, who are busy reinvesting their money, creating new opportunities and new jobs. These funds are coming from the share that our Government would normally receive and spend on you and I and all BC taxpayers, not just a select few!

DPJ, don’t be such a racist. Its their land, they agreed to let the mining company extract resources from it, they worked out a deal to help people stay employed. Its all good news.

Not racist. Just stating that the mine is not on all 4 first nation bands which are relevant in this article. Why should someone get money when they do not even own the land affected? I, as a northern BC land owner, cannot get royalties from the mine since it is not on my land. So why should first nations groups do likewise?

DPJ_______if it wasn.t on FN land…how did they swing a agreement??? Duhh You think the little plots of land people call Rservations???Is the only land they have??

I see what your saying DPJ. Most first nations in BC have never signed a treaty agreement that settles land claims. I think if they all got signed as is now it would amount to something like 150% of the province. That is obviously never going to happen. BC is made up of many immigrant groups and natives of another variety that are multi generational to the land and have legal rights as well.

I think fundamentally we have two main guiding principles here… and that is most would argue we strive to be a meritocracy, and most would insist we operate by the rule of law. These two guiding principals to me are at the heart of a free enterprise society.

For BC to have a fully lawful process to protect the legal rights of everyone in this province… under the assumption we are all citizens with equal rights… then we need to reconcile the unresolved rights to territory that existed prior to the formation of the three colonies that made up BC. How can this be done equitably to recognize some sort of compensation that recognizes the new reality that we are no longer the BC of 1850, nor do we wish to fracture the integrity and the legal supremacy of the province as a whole that protects all our legal rights?

Not every first nation group in BC is going to have a mega mine on their territory, or an oil and gas infrastructure. Picking winners and losers is an option but not an option for stability. Maybe the profit center in the mine is located on one territory and the tailing run off effect is on the watershed of an entirely different territory? Maybe they have another uniting cause, or maybe it is a sharing of a revenue center among many bands forced on them by the province?

I share the concern of corruption within the bands. You get some chiefs that create economically sustainable operations to bring dividends for the future generations (ie McLeod Lake), and you get others that look to squander that for todays avarice.

If we had settled treaties it wouldn’t be much of a public concern how the first nations squandered opportunity… being that these are unsettled treaty bands I think the province and the companies involved have a fiduciary duty to ensure the spending of these royalties is conducted through a complete democratic and transparent processes that meet guidelines for fairness… but that might be wishful thinking.

All’n all and I think if we see the first nations empowered to the full legal extent of their rights and they use that opportunity to get a leg up in a world dominated with foreign, and state owned enterprises in a globalized world of high finance running the corpocracy that we have become… then having first nations rights in play could be all that decent Canadians have standing between us and the slavatude of the globalized 1% of elites making all the decisions in the City of London, Wall Street or the back allies of Tel Aviv.

I think most natives at heart are free enterprise and that is the most mutually advantageous ideology for them. Competing in a world of monopoly capitalism, or the welfare state of poverty are not advantages to their own individual dreams and aspirations. First Nations need a strong diverse middle class with first nations being a key component protecting and enabling free enterprise values through being engaged in a positive fashion. A strong middle class is going to be more appreciative of the collective first nations rights, than would be foreign corporations playing them out of any part of the process.

First nations economic inclusion and free enterprise values is the win win scenario for this part of the world IMO.

I hope at least some of the idiots that helped shut down the Prosperity Mine project read this story. According to the numbers, there are 40 native guys at Huckleberry making an average of $87,000 tax free per year. Not bad huh. There are no natives living near fish lake making that kind of coin (other than the chiefs and band administrators).

I have nothing against the people (first nations in this case) working and making a living. A better example to many first nations

I am glad one person understands my point of view (Eagleone). Thankyou.

All well and good, but everyone should have to pay taxes, whether they have earned the money or have been given the money,including the bands.
You know, the old level playing field?
Where all are equal in status?
What would be wrong with that?
metalman.