SC’IȺNEW’s Lands Department plays a critical role in exercising SC’IȺNEW’s inherent authority over lands by making laws, developing policies, and even providing boots on the ground support to keep everyone safe. But the Department can’t do it alone.

While SC’IȺNEW has always held the inherent right to care for traditional lands, this right was supplanted by the Indian Act in the process of colonization.

In 1996, the Framework Agreement on First Nation Land Management cleared the way for First Nations to resume inherent authority over reserve lands for the first time since colonization. Under the Framework, signatory First Nations create individual, community-drafted and approved land codes that replace the land and environmental management portions of the Indian Act, thereby restoring many land-related decision-making powers to the First Nation.

SC’IȺNEW created a Land Code under the Framework Agreement in 2003, eliminating the Indian Act’s application to land management on SC’IȺNEW’s reserve lands. The SC’IȺNEW Lands Department is tasked with bringing this Land Code to life by ensuring SC’IȺNEW’s lands are cared for in a way that is community-led and respectful of SC’IȺNEW’s traditions and values.

At the centre of the work of the Lands Department is Bernice Millette, who joined the Department over two decades ago to realize her passion for helping the community. Millette is supported by a talented team, including Lands Assistant Traci-Lynn Pateman and Environmental Monitor Bruce Charles.  

The Lands Department also receives input and guidance from two committees made up of SC’IȺNEW members – the Lands Management Advisory Committee and the Elders Advisory Committee – ensuring the Lands Department operates in a good way to care for the land and further the interests of the community. The Lands Management Advisory Committee includes Chair Isabelle Charles, Council Representative Traci-Lynn Pateman, Bruce Charles, Tina Tejano, Clarence Campbell, and Peter Charles. Traci-Lynn Pateman also serves as the Council Representative on the Elders Advisory Committee, where she is joined by Evelyn Vandermaas, Barbara Armstrong, Jennifer Charles, Rita Millette, and Sharon Jay.

From high-level oversight to ground-level initiatives, the Lands Department handles every aspect of caring for the lands.

At the highest level, the Lands Department works to create laws, policies, and procedures regarding how to best utilize and care for the lands. Using a community-led approach, the Department has issued a wide range of laws, such as the Spirit Bay Zoning Law of 2014 and the Beecher Bay First Nation Subdivision, Development and Servicing Law of 2020.

Additionally, the Department recently finalized a Land Use Plan and an Environmental Management Plan. These agreements will serve as key frameworks for land use and management for many years to come. The Department is now beginning an implementation process guided by the Lands Management Advisory Committee, the Elders Advisory Committee, and the greater community. This will continue throughout the next year and beyond.

To kick off the process, the Department will host a Land Use Plan implementation meeting on July 15th, 2025 and an Environmental Management Plan implementation meeting on August 26th, 2025. During these meetings, the Department will receive vital community input to ensure implementation of all policies and processes is done in the best possible way to further the exercise of sovereignty over SC’IȺNEW’s lands.

Next up, the Lands Department is planning to create a Development Law to manage the development of band lands and to rework SC’IȺNEW’s original Land Code, all with an eye towards reflecting the community’s current needs and supporting SC’IȺNEW’s long-term goals.

On the ground, the Lands Department engages in continuous oversight of the land to protect the community from threats. Environmental Monitor Bruce Charles, for example, is tasked with watching the lands to prevent environmental issues such as poaching and unauthorized tree cutting and overseeing key land maintenance initiatives such as caring for the roads. The Lands Department is also collaborating with the Ocean Resources Department to create a drone-based approach to monitoring fire and other land-based environmental hazards.

The work of the Lands Department dovetails with ongoing community-wide initiatives to better protect the land and the waters.  Millette celebrated the recent establishment of a  Western Canada Marine Response Corporation (WCMRC) oil spill response centre at Cheanuh Marina, for example, sharing:

We found out that it would have taken 72 hours for an oil spill response team to get to us, and, to quote Chief Chipps, “we didn’t want to be the protesters on the shore holding up signs.” We wanted to be the ones going out and cleaning up the spill. Getting a WCMRC base here at SC’IȺNEW helps protect the land and our oceans from oil spills.

The Lands Department’s work is only possible thanks to the support of the larger community. Community interest and support of the Lands Department’s work is not only crucial to ensure the work is in alignment with SC’IȺNEW’s values and traditions, but also because the community’s ability to successfully create, agree to, and collectively enforce land management laws independent of the colonial system is a critical reclamation of sovereignty. Millette calls upon the community to “work together to support the laws and enforce everything,” explaining that “input and support of the lands is very important, and we need to work with each other to have a successful Lands Department.”

Millette encourages all community members to get involved by submitting thoughts, input, and feedback to the Lands Management team or committee members, including the community’s youth. “We are going to need future Land Managers, Environmental Officers, and others to handle the technical things that come with dealing with the lands,” Millette says. Community members can also get involved by attending the upcoming community input sessions described above.

To learn more about the Lands Department, visit the Lands Department page of the SC’IȺNEW website. 

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