Half of Tsawwassen lives in overcrowded homes on the reserve. The rest form a growing waiting list for homes, many in the meantime living in other parts of the province and in Bellingham,Washington.

"Community members with growing families wanting new housing are increasingly frustrated," says Tsawwassen Chief Kim Baird. "It's been many years since the TFN has been able to pull together a housing project." A lack of infrastructure, high costs and few financial resources make the community's government unable to improve the quality of existing homes or provide new ones.

PHOTO: TFN

"Land use issues are probably the most controversial aspect of the treaty, but our community will benefit from the revenue brought in by industrial development," Chief Kim Baird

In 1994, the TFN began construction on an 86-unit condominium on the beach called Tsatsu Shores. But the homes were not for Tsawwassen, with most selling for between $120,000 and $300,000. The new treaty will bring even more business opportunities, says Chief Kim Baird. The band is considering three development plans each including a mix of housing for residents and on the open market, says Baird. But the real criticisms of these development plans have concerned industrial expansion. The land's waterfront location makes it prime industrial real estate, says Baird. "[These projects] are where we will get the revenue we need to become prosperous." The Roberts Bank coal port and container terminal will almost certainly be expanded, says Baird. Tsawwassen's involvement could involve land leasing, port services on adjacent land and a profit-sharing agreement with the port authority. In addition, band members would benefit from employment offered by developing and maintaining port services on Tsawwassen land.

New port storage container facilities, for example, are expected bring in jobs and revenue. "There's a lot of pressure on us to do port-related development," says Baird. She has been approached by various port business interests and recently traveled to Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore to tour port operations. "We're seeing if it is something that could be compatible with our community."

But it is the use of prime agricultural land to store shipping containers that angers critics most. "We are in the process of legislating the end of the Agricultural Land Reserve and gaining a parking lot of containers," Delta North NDP MLA Guy Gentner told the B.C. Legislature last October.

"Land use issues are probably the most controversial aspect of the treaty," says Baird. "But our community will benefit from the revenue brought in by industrial development."

According to my understanding, there is very few fertile land in the world. The population is increasing, but the fertile land is decreasing day by day. Canada occupies 7% of the world's land but we have limited fertile land. Tsawwassen land is one of the most fertile lands in BC. If we use such a fertile land for other purposes than farming, there will be negative impact in ecosystem. Infrastructure like an airport, port, housing, roads, railway etc should be constructed on a non-fertile land. We have to think sustainable development. So Tsawwassen Treaty is concern only for business purposes - it only tried to make money by constructing a port instead of farming.

The treaty was driven by the Gateway - the provincial plan to expand the port and connect it with new and wider highways. This ignores the collapse of the US dollar, the steep decline in cross Pacific container traffic, the availability of new routres such as the North West passage and the widened Panama Canal and the key role played by the railways in moving transcontinental freight. All these issues are dealt at length in my blog - stephenrees.wordpress.com and on the Livable Region web site
livableregion.ca.

This is typical of the short term thinking that bedevils our political system. We need to take a strategic view of how our world is changing - and how to cope with that. Unfortunately, the appeals to justice in the TFN process have been ignored by the grab for the quick buck. A sad day for Canada and the Tsawwassen, who both deserve much better leaders with real vision

The TFN treaty was done without proper consideration of the Semiahmoo First Nation treaty, the protection of our Agricultural Land Reserve, or the Environment. This is not about giving TFN its due... its about expanding DeltaPort at the expense of our farmland, the Fraser River estuary, and our air quality in a area that shouldn't have been considered for a port in the first place. Tsawwassen First Nations accepted individual cash payouts from the government for signing the treaty and now we will all have to live with the blight of container sprawl on some of the best farmland and most important wildlife habitat in the world.