http://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/pique/index.php?cat=C_News&content=Skatin+fire+1604

By Jesse Ferreras

Whistler's Rotary Club responded to a fire call on Jan. 12 that left a Skatin couple with nothing.

Richard and Madeline Williams lost their house and a small store in the fire, according to Richard's son Keith Williams, a former Skatin Band manager.

Doug Deeks, treasurer of Whistler's Rotary Club, got a call from Abou Bai-Sheka, administrator of the Head of the Lake School in Skatin, an In-SHUCK-ch First Nation community about two hours from Pemberton. Bai-Sheka informed him that the couple had been burnt out of their house and lost everything.

"We had a poor connection, so we wound up sending him an e-mail," said David Oakes, president of Whistler's Rotary Club, adding that Bai-Sheka had to use a satellite phone because Skatin is not hooked up to a phone grid.

The Rotary Club then started rounding up household items such as bedding, kitchen utensils and various other things from its members, as well as items from the Whistler Valley Quilters' Guild. They delivered the boxes to the couple in Pemberton on Friday, Jan. 16, and they still have items left over.

"I've got another couple of boxes of stuff that came up Friday night from Squamish," Oakes said. "One of the Millennium Club members lives in Squamish, he had a bunch of stuff but couldn't get it up until Friday night, so I've still got it."

Skatin is a relatively isolated community that, along with the Douglas and Samahquam Nations, forms the In-SHUCK-ch Nation. Skatin is accessible only by an approximately 50-km forest service road past the Lil'wat Nation's Mount Currie reserve.

The Rotary Club of Whistler provides support on various levels for the Head of the Lake School. Among other things, the Rotary Club has organized a library for the school and donated kids-level education software for school computers.

Oakes is extending thanks to the club's members, as well as the Whistler Valley Quilters' Guild for donating to the couple.

Published: Thursday, January 15, 2009 | 7:45 PM ET

Canadian Press NewsItem/NewsComponent/NewsLines/ByLine

VICTORIA, B.C. - The deaths of five people in a house fire on Vancouver Island has renewed calls for improved housing conditions for Canada's aboriginal peoples.

Three generations of one B.C. aboriginal family were killed in the blaze on the Chemainus First Nation reserve.

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/national/090115/n0115126A.html

Published: Thursday, January 15, 2009 | 10:24 PM ET

Canadian Press NewsItem/NewsComponent/NewsLines/ByLine

OTTAWA - Talk about a hefty dinner tab.

Canada's five aboriginal leaders met with the prime minister and premiers Thursday night over Alberta sirloin and a $22-a-bottle wine selection. Also on the menu: calls for federal-budget cash for native housing, job training and a range of building projects totalling more than $4.4 billion over the next two years.

The Harper government is set to deliver a big-spending budget Jan. 27 with enough economic accelerants to drive the deficit up to $40 billion.

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/national/090115/n0115134A.html

by Michael Milstein, The Oregonian

Friday January 09, 2009, 6:11 PM

Canadian fishermen will reduce their catch of chinook salmon by 30 percent along the West Coast of Vancouver Island, leaving more fish to migrate home to the Columbia River, under new treaty provisions ratified by the United States and Canada this week.

The United States will provide Canadian authorities with $30 million to help compensate the fishing fleet hit by the cutbacks, according to the new revisions in the Pacific Salmon Treaty.

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/01/canadians_agree_to_catch_fewer.html

Published: January 11, 2009 7:00 AM

Surrey Community Services is getting $3.4 million from the federal government to help run its Whalley Employment Resource Centre.

The centre helps unemployed people in underrepresented groups – including immigrants, aboriginals, youth and the disabled – find jobs in high-demand fields where businesses have had trouble recruiting.

The money comes from Service Canada’s Employment Assistance Services program.

http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/surreyleader/community/37361244.html

SENATOR'S SAGA

Resignation from national chief's role ends appointee's plan to collect two six-figure salaries

BILL CURRY

January 10, 2009

OTTAWA -- Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau resigned as national chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples yesterday, abandoning his controversial plan to hold two six-figure, taxpayer-funded jobs.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090110.BRAZEAU10/TPStory/National

Canada and U.S. agreed on harvest, interception of fish

Shayne Morrow, Canwest News Service

Published: Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Canada and the United States this week ratified changes to five chapters of the Pacific Salmon Treaty.

The treaty, first negotiated by the Pacific Salmon Commission, provides for joint management of the five migratory salmon species from Southern B.C./Washington State to Alaska and the Yukon. Monday's announcement addressed five chapters of PST, according to Paul Sprout, regional director for Fisheries and Oceans Canada's Pacific Region.

http://www.canada.com/nanaimodailynews/news/story.html?id=8dea2d3a-c30e-4645-83f0-afea0997f55c

1 day ago

VANCOUVER, B.C. — The U.S. government will hand over millions of dollars to compensate the B.C. fishing industry for dramatic cuts to salmon fisheries.

The US$30 million salve is one of several changes that took effect in the Pacific Salmon Treaty at the beginning of this year, with the aim of ensuring the sustainability of declining Pacific salmon stocks in Canada and the U.S.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jpbKSNa0CuX4Tf7s3bTK-Xw04QfQ

Two bands have opportunity to invest in gas storage centre

Robert Barron, Daily News

Published: Saturday, December 20, 2008

The Chemainus First Nation and the Cowichan Tribes will become part-owners of the $200-million liquefied natural gas storage facility being built in Cassidy by Terasen Gas.

http://www.canada.com/nanaimodailynews/news/story.html?id=f6367e07-ec4c-4eef-8fa6-b78230120cb0

ABORIGINAL POLICY: INTERNAL E-MAIL

BILL CURRY

January 6, 2009

OTTAWA -- Aboriginals across Canada were moved to tears last June in a wave of deep emotion to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Indian residential schools apology on the floor of the House of Commons.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090106.APOLOGY06/TPStory/National

OTTAWA -- It took just five minutes for Patrick Brazeau, national chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, to say yes to a seat in the Senate.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2008/12/24/7843111-sun.html

Published: November 27, 2008 4:00 PM

Updated: November 27, 2008 4:35 PM

A review of West Coast salmon stocks by Fisheries and Oceans Canada is holding up treaty negotiations for at least seven B.C. aboriginal communities, the B.C. Treaty Commission says.

Presenting their annual report Wednesday, the four independent commissioners called on the federal government to complete the review and give federal negotiators the mandate they need to offer fishery shares to first nations.

http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/peacearchnews/news/35198779.html