Ellis Ross, the chief councillor for the Haisla First Nation, has spent 11 elected years leading an economic development movement that has changed the Haisla from a systemically impoverished people into a B.C. business success story.
Ross was the keynote speaker at the Thursday luncheon of the B.C. Natural Resources Forum. He illustrated how complex life is in northern B.C., especially for a First Nation that is on the one hand limited by the federal Indian Act but on the other hand in a position of strength after court cases clearly establishing aboriginal land title, just when a multitude of major industrial proponents want to cross their territory with everything from logs to petroleum to minerals.
The balance between cashing in and selling out had to be struck atop his desk, he explained.
He was not prepared, he said, to tie the Haisla to contracts based on long-term payoffs. He focused on deals that had immediate dividends so his people could handle their immediate needs first, then take real control of their own destiny.
He clearly worried, too, about the unintended consequences that lurked behind the glittering business offers on the table. He admitted of course he wanted it both ways.
"When you take on that independence role, you're putting your name on legal documents," he said. "Sure I want the benefits of economic development but I sure don't want the liability. If a Mount Polly (dam disaster) happened on my territory, after signing in a mining company to be a partner, I'd sure want the consequences (legalities and costs) to fall on B.C., not my band.
"But when a youth from my band commits suicide, and you didn't have the means to help that person in a time of need, you sure wish then that you had that economic development to pay for those services to be there."
And he was also aware that helping his internal Haisla economy would also help the fortunes of the neighbouring First Nations and the nearby non-aboriginal communities.
"I am fully committed to bring prosperity to my people, but I'm branching out," he said, meaning he was also OK with Haisla dealings also having a prosperity component for others. Ross was just as proud to put food on the table of non-Haisla people when it was part of a fair deal.
"I am looking out at the impacts on a region, a province, a country," he said. "You can't have one segment of the population getting all the benefits. That's the way it's been the last 150 years, and we can't repeat that going forward."
He was stern about not being blind to the benefits of broader society to aboriginal people. If he or any aboriginal person gets sick, they have a hospital to go to, they drive there on a stoutly built road, they have schools and careers at their feet, all paid for by natural resources and tax dollars.
"And aboriginal people do pay taxes," he said. "Taxes are good. No one should mind paying taxes. Taxes are a circle that come back as benefits to you and me."
He also stressed that most First Nations were not ready for self-governance and that goal was a long way off. In fact, he suggested, there was a lot of positivity in having the provincial and federal governments there, as long as they were backstopping a First Nation not milking it as was done as a matter of course up until the most recent of times.
"I'm thankful to abide by B.C. and Canadian law," he said. He earned a round of laughs by pointing out: "I'm on council and we can't even get a proper dog bylaw enforced. We aren't ready for making and enforcing laws that would address a murderer or a corrupt official."
Learning to walk before learning to run was best done, he said, by having a healthy relationship with the various levels of government, and with those who can provide employment and revenue opportunities.
"We are trying to show that doing business with aboriginal people in B.C. is a good thing. When you get a First Nation as a partner, they become your lobbyist for your project. Many companies in B.C. are starting to become aware of that."
Ross acknowledged, though, that doing business with First Nations was not always easy for those potential partners. He described how, if 200 First Nations sit down in a room and look over the same industrial proposal, you would certainly get 200 different responses to it.
"This idea that First Nations are in harmony, respect each other, and love to share with each other is a myth," he said.
"A big part of our history is warring and raiding and killing, and then later having a feast with them. We remember that. That exists in us today. A company comes to your territory and says 'hey, I have an idea, let's do a deal' then we pull up a chair, but if a neighbouring First Nation comes in and says 'hey, I have an idea, let's do a deal' then the reaction," pointing to the exit, "all too often is 'get the hell out of our territory' and that has to stop. The real irony is, if this issue isn't settled, it's the membership that will continue to suffer through it all. The leaders won't have a problem, but the common aboriginal living in poverty will not have an answer and will continuing living in poverty."
He challenged First Nations to take both sides of that matter into their own hands. Get involved in the private sector economy, he said, and move towards exiting the federal government's Indian Act-based subsistence-only cycle.
"It's a lifestyle of poverty, welfare, suicide," said Ross.
"And these poverty skills are well honed. They get passed on to the next generation. In my mind, I've got no choice. I've got to try something. If I can't make an impact for my people, and they continue down this path of poverty, that's my fault. They elected me to do something about their future. Full responsibility. It's not B.C.'s fault. It's not Canada's fault. It's on me."
