When Rollie Clark bought a home on five acres in the Tantalus Acres area of the Upper Squamish Valley three years ago, it was partly out of a yearning for more peace and solitude and partly out of a desire for more space on which to keep the equipment he uses for his independent trucking business, R. Clark Trucking.
On Monday (Feb. 28), Clark said he certainly found what he was seeking.
"It's great. It's a nice, quiet spot," he said. "That was the idea of moving out here - it was a little more room, nice and quiet."
Clark, though, had no indication when he moved there from Brackendale that his property and those of his closest neighbours might not actually belong to them. But that's precisely what he and 12 of his neighbours learned last Wednesday, Feb. 23, when representatives of the B.C. and Squamish Nation governments came calling on him and his common-law wife, Ulrika Moody.
"I got home from work and there was two people from the government and one from the Squamish Nation who came into my driveway to let me know what was going on," Clark said.
Earlier in the day, Pat Bell, B.C.'s Minister of Forests, Mines and Lands, told media representatives in Victoria that 14 parcels totalling about 9.88 acres (about four hectares) in the Squamish Valley were meant to be part of the Cheakamus Indian Reserve when the initial federal government survey was carried out in 1881. But because of a land-titles error that occurred in 1917 and was "carried forward over the years," the land was classified as fee simple -i.e. title to the land was available to non-First Nations settlers.
While Bell told the media that day about the mix-up, the government asked that the information be embargoed until Thursday (Feb. 24) at noon to give officials time to notify those who owned the land -or rather, thought they did.
And what was Clark's first reaction?
"Of course, it was shall we say, slight disbelief," he said. "I never thought something like this could happen, but upon talking to them, they seemed to be saying that everyone's in negotiation to make the whole thing go away. I guess we'll see with that."
Twelve of the 14 parcels are under title at the B.C. Land Titles Office to private owners, including two of them by the same owner. Another is federally owned, while the final parcel -about two acres, according to the North Shore News -is owned by the North Vancouver School District as part of the 400-acre North Vancouver Outdoor School property.
Bell said government officials only became aware of the mix-up recently and that he personally first learned of it on Feb. 17.
Chief Gibby Jacob told The Chief on Monday (Feb. 28) that Squamish Nation leaders have known about the error for approximately 20 years.
"I've been on council for over 30 years now and I'm guessing it would be in the late '80s when we became aware when looking at some surveys that were done that showed there was a trespass and some that showed there was not a trespass," Jacob said.
Despite knowing that there might be an error, "We just let it be," Jacob said. "We knew it would need to be dealt with at some point in time."
Jacob said a number of surveys have been carried out over the past few months on the Squamish Nation's behalf. He said he couldn't remember exactly when the survey that confirmed the error took place.
Clark said he saw some surveyors in the area "earlier this year" and asked what was happening.
"What we were told then was that they had to do some re-surveying dealing with the reserve lands. But we had no indication of anything like this," he said.
The affected land has a total estimated value (including the land and improvements) of around $4.5 million, a government spokesperson said.
Bell said the B.C. government and Squamish Nation officials are working together to transfer the properties to the owners, perhaps in exchange for some sort of "direct compensation" or land swap.
"The early indications are the Squamish [Nation] are interested in a land swap," he said.
He added, "The options that we are providing for landowners is that we will work to transfer the lands to the federal government, the provincial government and then to each of the individual owners. We will cover all of the costs associated with the transfer of those lands. We'll ensure that they don't have any out-of-pocket expenses as a result of it."
Jacob, though, said Squamish Nation council will likely hear a presentation of options associated with the land-titles mix-up at its meeting and would decide at that time what to seek in negotiations with the B.C. government.
He said he can't say at this point whether that will be money, land, a combination of the two or something else entirely.
"I'm sure it'll be resolved," Jacob said. "It's here now, and we have to come to some agreement on it. But the outcome of the arrangement, I can't predetermine what that is until my colleagues on council get the report."
Clark said that after learning of the situation, he met with his mortgage lender and was told that the bank "felt reassured by the guarantee of the province that it won't be an issue," he said.
"I don't think it's going to resolved tomorrow, but I don't know how long the process is going to take, either. It's kind of sh---y being in limbo," he said.
However, Clark added, "I would think at the end of the day it's going to cost somebody something, but it was certainly no fault of ours, so I would think that it would be resolved without any expense to the landowners."
