UBC’s omnibus Campus Vision 2050 is setting new ground, not just in terms of massively densifying campus, but in the way Musqueam leadership and community have been involved in the process from the start. Given that UBC sits on land that was granted to the university without Musqueam consent, UBC leadership has much to gain by proactively involving Musqueam in what is likely to be the biggest jump in development planned by UBC in over 50 years.
UBC is technically on private land, not crown land. However, as a provincial public university, Musqueam’s underlying rights and title may well operate in such a way as to compel UBC to do their best to work proactively with Musqueam.
The provincial government has in the past negotiated settlements with Musqueam via land transfers of provincially held land. For example, in 2003 when the province sold the UBC Golf Course to UBC, Musqueam sued the province. Four years later the province settled the court case by transferring the golf course and several other parcels of land to Musqueam fee simple ownership. The current residential development along University Boulevard, is one of the outcomes of that settlement.
Musqueam Engagement in Campus Vision 2050
UBC invited Musqueam into the planning process early in the game. Though this is not something UBC invented. Including First Nations has been standard practice in provincial land use planning processes for over two decades now.
BC initiated the process following the political protests in the 1990s. Settler and First Nation people objected to land use planning that led to excessive old growth logging. The protests resulted in hundreds of arrests in Clayoquot Sound. The solution from the province was to create a land use planning process that brought relevant First Nations into the structure, not simply as one among many stakeholders, but as co-leads. For example, the North Coast Land and Resource Management Planning Process began in 2001. It was co-led by a settler and an Indigenous facilitator. Local First Nations were directly involved in the coordination and decision making. In urban areas, however, it has been harder to institute similar planning processes as large settler populations have tended to be more resistent to including local First Nations rights holders in key planning processes.
UBC is following the lead of the resource sector by involving Musqueam. The parties “co-developed a process for Musqueam engagement in Campus Vision 2050.”
According to the Campus Vision webpage the engagement process includes:
“Musqueam-UBC meetings with senior administration from both communities along with Chief and Council meeting updates.
Two representatives from Musqueam who are part of the Campus Vision 2050 Community Advisory Committee.
Musqueam community-wide engagement, which includes sessions with Musqueam staff and community members, along with a community dinner event, as well as a survey tailored to Musqueam. The community will continue to be engaged throughout the process, including a Musqueam invitation to attend a Public Hearing on a request to the Province for amendments to UBC’s Land Use Plan required to enable the long-term vision for the campus.”
In provincial planing processes issues of potential overlapping rights and title claims leads to inclusions of more than one First Nation being involved. UBC appears to have only included Musqueam in this process even though there are several other adjoining First Nations with potential intersecting interests.
UBC’s decision to include Musqueam early in the Campus Vision 2050 process highlights changes well established within the industrial and government regulatory sectors in BC. It foreshadows future changes in the UBC/Musqueam relationship in ways that may start to emphasize economic aspects in addition to the educational, cultural, and symbolic relations that UBC has already established.