A couple of hours after posting a story to BCLocalnews.com that reported the B.C. government was abandoning its Recognition and Reconciliation Act, I received a terse e-mail from Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs.

“For the record, I am not convinced that there remains any significant level of support for the so-called ‘New Relationship’,” Phillip wrote on Sept. 14.

“Given the lack of substantive progress over the last few years, I believe the majority of B.C. First Nation leaders carry a very jaded view of the so-called ‘New Relationship.’ Unfortunately, the vision and promises of the grandly trumpeted New Relationship appear to be yet another example of one of Premier Campbell’s passing policy infatuations.”

That’s an interesting shot coming from Phillip, one of the architects of the vaguely defined New Relationship and custodians of the $100 million fund put up by taxpayers to make it real. It should also be noted that Phillip, as much as anyone, initiated the legislation that would have created a new kind of aboriginal title across B.C.

The 30 so-called ‘Indigenous Nations’ at the core of this legislation were based on the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs’ own map from its founding in 1969. This group was formed in the radicalized atmosphere prompted by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and Indian Affairs Minister Jean Chrétien’s proposal to dispense with special status for aboriginal Canadians.

Phillip praised Campbell as a visionary leader when the trust money was being delivered to an aboriginal-dominated board of directors three years ago. Then this spring, he broke ranks with the rest of the non-partisan First Nations Leadership Council and endorsed NDP leader Carole James.

Since the B.C. Liberal election win, Phillip has apparently been marginalized in the aboriginal hierarchy. Grand Chief Ed John, a one-time NDP children’s minister, has emerged as the moderate spokesman, along with Grand Chief Doug Kelly, the former Sto:lo hothead who has grown into an articulate voice on social development.

Aboriginal Relations Minister George Abbott, one of cabinet’s abler performers, has been handed a low-profile role cleaning up after a hasty and failed policy effort. Many people agree with Phillip’s dig that the growing crisis of aboriginal people has been tossed over Campbell’s shoulder along with climate change, his other big “infatuation.”

One thing is certain. In 2029, nobody’s going to care if the deficit this year was $2.7 billion or $3.3 billion. They might not even care about climate change, if the recently forecast decades of cold winters continue to unfold.

But in 20 years – make that 50 years – aboriginal title will still matter, more so in B.C. than anywhere else.

Abbott is looking ahead to the sort of pilot project for regional aboriginal governance this column has suggested. He identifies the Coastal First Nations group, including the Haida, Gitga’at, Haisla and Heiltsuk, as the leading candidate to build on their new land management structure.

Native people are slowly taking West Coast fisheries management away from Ottawa. B.C. has abdicated responsibility for aquaculture, and almost no one believes that Fisheries and Oceans Canada is competent to expand its responsibility. Pending treaties are stalled over salmon rights.

Starving grizzly bears are the latest bogus enviro-scare led by settler activists and their media cheerleaders. The bears are enjoying a record berry crop, and pink salmon have returned in numbers and to places never seen before. Pinks were touted as the first casualties of sea lice, another discredited claim of the enviro-lobby.

A powerful new relationship between people and salmon is on the horizon.

Tom Fletcher is legislative reporter and columnist for Black Press and BCLocalnews.com.

tfletcher@blackpress.ca