How are we working together?
To advance work on Action 4.49 and the Shared Priorities Framework, the Province and the Alliance of BC Modern Treaty Nations have set up dedicated government-to-government fiscal policy tables. Together, the parties are collaboratively developing new fiscal policy for consideration by decision makers. Input and guidance from Modern Treaty Nations is directly reflected in the policy design process.
Are there challenges?
The Province and Modern Treaty Nations continue to make important progress to advance this action. A potential risk is the complexity of the fiscal policy topics that are being explored, which requires significant investment of time and capacity by all parties. Working together, the Province and Modern Treaty Nations will need to ensure the work is being managed in a way that maintains the current momentum and continues to produce principled and tangible outcomes.
As Modern Treaty Nations take on an enhanced role in land and resource management, the Province must ensure all ministries take a consistent approach to working with them in a way that supports modern treaty rights, shared priorities and outcomes. This requires change management, including information sharing, to ensure a common understanding of the purpose of the new funding and how it can support improved outcomes on the land base.
Highlights
In 2024, the Province and Modern Treaty Nations negotiated amendments to Fiscal Financing Agreements, based on a co-developed new model for funding core lands and resource management. The new core funding will support Modern Treaty Nations in exercising their responsibilities as governments, and in partnering with the Province on lands and resource management. The amendments also commit the parties to collaboratively develop criteria, and an evaluation framework for an incremental funding component in cases where Modern Treaty Nations can demonstrate expenditure need beyond the core funding.
The Province and Modern Treaty Nations continue to collaboratively explore options to renew the Province’s mechanism for transferring funding under modern treaties, to better reflect their jurisdiction and autonomy. Together, progress has also been made towards the development of an overarching Modern Treaty collaborative fiscal policy, which is intended to lay out principles, methodologies and provisions to guide modern treaty fiscal relationships between the Province and Modern Treaty Nations.