Williams Lake First Nation holds referendum on settlement from federal government

Members of the Williams Lake First Nation (WLFN) will vote in a referendum on whether to approve a $135-million settlement offered by federal government.

This follows nearly two decades of back and forth between the nation and the Canadian government about compensation for the displacement of Indigenous peoples from their lands.

“Around 1859, settlers started to occupy those village lands. Within a few years, settlers had taken the majority of those village lands, contrary to colonial law,” said WLFN Chief Willie Sellars in a video on the nation’s website. “Our people were homeless and threatened by starvation. We had lost a place that was critically important to our history, our culture, and our entire existence.”

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WLFN has filed various claims, including one with the Specific Claims Tribunal which ruled in the nation’s favour before the Federal Court of Appeal overturned the decision.

“We were forced to take the village claim all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, who finally ruled in favor of our village claim,” Sellars explained.

Current plans for the settlement is to pay for “one-time costs,” he says, including $25,000 payments to each Elder.

$1 million will be used to repay “costs incurred to achieve justice in this matter, including legal, expert, ratification, and administrative expenses,” the nation says in its information to members.

$1,500 would be paid to each WLFN member, including Elders, each year.

The rest, Sellars says, would be placed in a community trust.

“That trust will be professionally managed to provide a legacy for future generations to come.”

Annual payments to minors would be placed in that trust.

The federal government and the nation agreed in principle to the $135-million figure last January.

There will be a series of referendum information sessions for members, and registered WLFN member voters will be sent information and a mail-in ballot.

Voters can also vote in-person on June 29.

The WLFN made some preliminary discoveries of possible unmarked graves at the the site of a former residential school. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently announced an additional $2.9 million to help with that investigation.