File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By James Peters

Rancher Concerns

Chilcotin ranch owners face ‘anxiety and deep concern’ over land claim negotiations

Jun 2, 2020 | 10:03 AM

CHILCOTIN REGION, B.C. — Anxiety and deep concern is what ranchers in the Chilcotin region are feeling at the moment, according to one ranch owner.

Felix Schellenberg, owner of Rafter 25 Ranch and Pasture to Plate Natural Products says that uncertainty surrounding “secret” land claims negotiations between the Federal and Provincial Governments and First Nations is causing the concern.

According to a release by Schellenberg to CFJC Today sister station CKPG News, appeals to both federal and provincial governments by ranchers in the Chilcotin region and other residents to be welcomed to the land ownership negotiations table are “stubbornly and continuously being ignored.”

“We have invested lifetimes and generations of hard work, personal financial resources and the agrarian knowledge of centuries in the support of making the Chilcotin a place of progress with infrastructure, steady employment opportunities and amenities for everyone who live and visit here to enjoy,” said Schellenberg.

“Residents, businesses and business organizations, all taxpayers, and community organizations in the Chilcotin have been pleading with the government to be invited to the table where their livelihoods are being decided upon,” reads the release.

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According to Schellenberg several ranch owners have reached out to Carolyn Bennett, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and the Prime Minister to cease negotiations during the 2020 pandemic so that area stakeholders have the opportunity to join discussions after the pandemic, however, did not receive a response.