Five Vancouver Island First Nations have signed an agreement in principle with the provincial and federal governments are part of ongoing treaty negotiations.
The agreement with the Malahat, Snaw-Naw-As, Songhees, Beecher Bay, Gordon Planes, and T’Sou-ke First Nations includes the transfer of title to more than 15-hundred hectares of Crown land.
The five will also share in 142 million dollars in funding.
The Agreement-in-Principle covers issues that included governance, taxation and lands and a process for the transition to self-government.
Incremental Treaty Agreements signed in 2013 allowed for the early transfer of some the land.
Malahat Chief Michael Harry calls the agreement another building block in a truly new relationship between the Malahat and the people of British Columbia and Canada.
