First Nations protesters want BioCentral to seek permission from the Lower Nicola Band if its biosolids composting facility is to stand.
An information session was held Wednesday between protesters and the company after protesters — who have been blocking the company from accessing its biosolids composting facility in Lower Nicola for almost two months — requested a meeting in exchange for allowing an equipment truck to pass through to the site.
Organizer of the meeting Arnie Narcisse told representatives from BioCentral at the meeting that they should contact the Lower Nicola Band and enter into the band’s referral process.
“Hopefully they’re wise enough to take my broad hints that there is a process that they should have gone through, and that they make use of it,” Narcisse told the Herald.
Narcisse said that any proponent that wants to set up shop on the band’s traditional territory must come to the band and seek its permission.
Back in February, BioCentral sent a letter to the Lower Nicola Band requesting a meeting to listen to questions and concerns, and provide information about its existing biosloids composting facility and spreading operations on lands the company owns.
The letter also acknowledged that it was a mistake not getting in touch with the band much sooner.
Narcisse told the meeting’s 75 attendees the band responded to the letter saying the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed the Crown has been applying an incorrect view of aboriginal title, title which includes the exclusive right of aboriginal people to manage the land and its resources, and benefit economically from it.
“The court has also concluded that when the Crown allocates resources on aboriginal title lands without the consent of the indigenous people, it commits a serious infringement on constitutionally protected rights and that permits may be cancelled and damages owed,” Narcisse read.
Cory Herman, one of four BioCentral representatives who attended Wednesday’s meeting, said consulting First Nations and other residents wasn’t part of the provincial regulatory process the company had to take when establishing its compost facility in the Sunshine Valley.
“Now that’s an issue, not between BioCentral and the First Nations in the community, it’s [with] the province,” Herman said.
He invited people at the meeting to set up visits to the composting facility to see their operation.
“It’s really about being a good neighbour,” he said.
Narcisse told the Herald he thinks the company’s facility is operating on a flawed provincial permitting process.
The purpose of the meeting was to learn more about each other, said Narcisse, who views it as one step in the process.
“If they choose to tell us to go to hell then we go to war,” Narcisse said.
Herman said he felt the meeting went well, adding that the company wants to share information and get to the root concerns people have first-hand.
“Now it’s about an education process. Getting the right information from third party, credible sources and sharing amongst all the groups,” Herman said.
During the meeting, Herman outlined BioCentral’s operations. He said it composts biosolids and yard waste, and sells the compost it manufactures.
The composting site in Lower Nicola is a four-man operation, Herman said.
The blockade on Highway 8 remains in place and Narcisse said protesters still intend to stop BioCentral trucks if they attempt to breach the line.
Whether or not more BioCentral trucks will be attempting to access the composting facility was a question Herman couldn’t answer as of yet.
“We’re going to wait until this meeting is finished, the information is digested by both sides, and then there will be further steps taken,” Herman said.
Herman has told the Herald that the company would prefer not proceed with an injunction against protesters in order to move its trucks through.
The local First Nations chiefs did not attend the information session on Wednesday, despite their opposition against biosolids.
Narcisse told the Herald the chiefs did not attend the meeting because they did not want their attendance to be misconstrued as a consultation session.
“My far reaching dream to all this is that these guys come to the realization that maybe it’s just too much trouble operating in this neck of the woods,” Narcisse said of BioCentral.
