The B.C. government and Squamish Nation are working to resolve a 94-year-old error with the titles to 14 parcels of land in the Upper Squamish Valley, B.C.'s Minister of Forests, Mines and Lands said on Wednesday (Feb. 23).
The 14 properties - 12 parcels of private land, one owned by the Sea to Sky School Board and one owned by the federal government - were meant to be part of the Cheakamus Indian Reserve but were not treated as reserve land because of a land-titles error made in 1917 and "carried forward over the years," Minister Pat Bell told reporters in his Victoria office.
Bell said Squamish Nation leaders first brought the error to the attention of government officials, and that he only learned of the discrepancy last Thursday (Feb. 17). The 11 private owners of the affected parcels - one owner actually owns two of the parcels - were apprised of the situation on Wednesday, he said.
The total affected land area is about 9.88 acres and the 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 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."
Bell said the original federal government survey of the area was carried out in 1881.
"The survey has been reaffirmed on a number of different occasions right through the 1900s," he said. "It was never found to be in error. The issue here is you always move back to an original pin, and the original pin that was at error caused the problem."
