A North Shore aboriginal band that has tried to make Lower Mainland cities pay development consulting fees is now starting to ask private land owners to pay up as well.

The Tsleil-Waututh Nation (Burrard Band) set off alarm bells earlier this year when it tabled a "Stewardship Policy" spelling out fees it intended to levy on developments across a huge area of the Lower Mainland.

The band argued it needs the fees to recover its costs to study potential archaelogical or environmental impacts and warned that refusal to pay could lead to court action for illegally infringing aboriginal interests.

Local municipalities have so far refused to pay, fearing the Tsleil-Waututh policy would effectively give aboriginal bands a veto on development, while piling extra costs and bureaucracy onto the construction industry.

But the Tsleil-Waututh are now hitting up not just city halls, but private property developers as well.

A Tsawwassen homeowner seeking a Delta building permit to enlarge an existing house in a well-established subdivision was told by the band in August that a Tsleil-Waututh Cultural Heritage Investigation Permit would also be required, at an initial cost of $200 and possibly more if other services are needed.

The Lower Mainland Treaty Advisory Committee (LMTAC), which represents local governments in aboriginal relations, is demanding the province direct the band to cease its attempt to impose permits and fees.

In an Oct. 15 letter to Victoria, LMTAC says the Tsleil-Waututh request "misrepresents" the province's policy of consulting First Nations.

"Property owners in the Lower Mainland are not required to obtain either permits or consent from First Nations when applying for local government building permits," the LMTAC letter says.

"This is the first time any of us have seen this from the Tsleil-Waututh," Belcarra Mayor Ralph Drew, who chairs LMTAC, said in an interview. "It's brand new, out of the blue and it's starting to create an impact."

He called the band's policy an attempt to impose a parallel permitting system.

"If all First Nations adopted the same approach, we'd have a bureaucratic horror show in terms of each of them trying to adopt their own process, for a fee of course."

Contacted for comment, aboriginal relations and reconciliation minister George Abbott said in a written statement that while the Crown has an obligation to consult First Nations on decisions impacting aboriginal rights, First Nations also are obliged to participate in the consultation process.

"There is no legal authority for a First Nation to charge a fee to an individual who may be applying to government for a permit covering an activity on either Crown land or privately held land," Abbott said.

Drew called it the "most definitive" provincial statement yet on the issue, but said Victoria should take the matter up directly with the Tsleil-Waututh.

In the case of the Tsawwassen home addition, the property fell within Delta's archaelogical potential area, which happens frequently and triggers a referral to the province's archaeology branch.

It, in turn, forwarded the applicant's name and address to bands throughout the Lower Mainland for comment. That referral is how the Tsleil-Waututh obtained the name and address.

The applicant hasn't paid the fee.

LMTAC argues B.C. Archaeology should provide only the legal land description, not names or addresses, because doing so "facilitates the inappropriate use of the information by First Nations that are not bound by protection of privacy legislation."

The Tsawwassen property is a long way from the heart of Tseil-Waututh traditional territory in North Vancouver.

Tsawwassen is inside the 413,000-hectare zone where the band says its stewardship policy applies.

Also included is all of Richmond, Delta, south Surrey, White Rock and southern Langley, plus a corridor of waterfront land along the Fraser River as far upstream as Maple Ridge and Fort Langley. It also takes in Bowen Island and the Sea-to-Sky Corridor.

But many of those areas are outside the band's self-defined traditional territory for the purposes of treaty negotiations – it doesn't extend south of the Fraser River.

Tsleil-Waututh representatives could not be reached for comment.

Tsawwassen First Nation Chief Kim Baird said she's not overly concerned about a distant band trying to exert control on her people's doorstep.

She said the issue highlights the challenges of bands, which have few staff, are buried in "mountains of referrals", but want to do what they can to identify and protect sensitive sites.

"Municipalities take it for granted that their permitting fees give them the ability to recover their costs," Baird said. "First Nations don't have that ability."

It would be ideal, she said, if area bands, whose claims overlap, could form a common agency to efficiently handle such referrals – an idea LMTAC also supports.

Local cities and Metro Vancouver have now been approached several times to pay Tsleil-Waututh fees and the resulting standoff with the band has left some local or regional government projects in limbo.

One is a Metro Vancouver shoreline stabilization project proposed for Belcarra Regional Park, where erosion is undercutting trees, creating safety risks and washing away ancient aboriginal midden sites.

Because the regional district has refused to pay the stewardship policy fees to the Tseil-Waututh, the band says it hasn't been properly consulted and federal officials have so far refused to approve the project.

It's been delayed for four years and counting.

Greater Vancouver Home Builders Association CEO Peter Simpson said any attempt to extend an aboriginal permits and fees to home construction or renovations is "wrongheaded" and certain to raise the ire of residents.

"It's the last thing you expect if you're a homeowner and you want to do a simple renovation," Simpson said. "It's a layer of bureaucracy that nobody needs."

Related:

• Native consulting fees alarm cities (March 26, 2009)