One of the puzzling things happened back in 2005. We provided boxes and boxes of evidence to Mr. Lofthouse and Mr. Barkwell at those sessions. They had all of the evidence. They promised and promised to respond. It wasn't until after B.C. actually passed their legislation that we received a formal letter of response on all of the issues we put in.

The process has been bizarre right from the start. We asked for evidence to support Yale's claim that they are not Stó:lo. We were told that this was not part of the B.C. treaty-making process. You just need to put a claim in, your statement of intent, etc.

It's important to note, too, that...I'm not sure which document you are referring to, but the BC Treaty Commission attempted twice to mediate with Yale. You have to know that all of our Stó:lo attempts to contact Yale during the development of their AIP went unheeded. There was no response to our attempts to get together to talk about it. It wasn't until the BC Treaty Commission actually brought in the chief of Yale that we met for the very first time, and he already had the initialled agreements in his hand.

That's something worth asking the BC Treaty Commission. At that session, who was not prepared to negotiate any kinds of changes? Not one comma was going to be altered in the agreement. They were there at that session. The Treaty Commission attempted twice, and then AANDC, the department of Indian affairs, put Vince Ready in and he attempted it. He came up with a solution. It was worth pursuing—the memorandum of respect and understanding, and the Stó:lo responded favourably to him. Unfortunately, the Yale First Nation decided they were not interested in pursuing it, and it collapsed the whole process for the third time.

I want to make it clear that we've attempted in every manner to try to resolve this, to sit at the table and resolve this. It isn't as though we sat and waited for the government to resolve it, because that's not the case at all.

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