What is Treaty?

A treaty is a settlement or agreement arrived at through negotiation. A treaty gives rise to binding obligations between parties who make them. It may outline the rights and responsibilities of the parties as they are agreed upon. Lake Babine Nation have their legal rights recognized and clarify the ownership and management of the land and resources.

However, a ‘treaty’ can also refer to any agreement or contract and in this sense it can be used to describe agreements made between parties.

What is a treaty?
The Lake Babine Nation will be negotiating a treaty with
the Governments of Canada and British Colum-
bia (BC).  A treaty is an agreement that will
set up a new relationship between theLake Babine Nation and the other governments.  It will
clearly set out the rights, obligations and authori-
ties of the Lake Babine Nation related to land and
self-government within the Constitution of
Canada.

Modern treaty negotiations began in 1973 and
several treaties have been reached since then in
the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut,
Labrador, Quebec and BC (the Nisga’a treaty,
which came into effect in 2000).  The BC treaty
process started in 1992 and there are currently
eight first Nation that are in Stage five(5).

Lake Babine Nation will have to take into consideration that a legal opinion that was prepared by Thomas Berger on June 13, 1990 confirms that a Babine Barricades Treaty does exist between Canada and the Babine Carrier people.

What is the status of
Lake Babine Nation treaty
Negotiations?
The Lake Babine Nation, Canada and BC are cur-
rently in stage four of the six-stage treaty nego-
tiation process and will be negotiating an AIP that
will form the basis for negotiating a final agree-
ment.
The AIP covers the basic elements of the treaty,
some of which include land ownership, access to
resources (including wildlife, fisheries and
mineral resources), culture, self-government and finan-
cial arrangements.
Some topics currently under negotiation are land, wild-
life, fish and migratory birds, parks, cultural resources
and governance, among other topics.