On Tuesday, March 25, the Columbia River Treaty negotiating team and associated politicians held a webinar about the status of the 2024 Agreement in Principle (AIP), which might also be termed the Agreement in Limbo….Since the imagined faucet comment, made by a certain US politician (see my November post), and since the tariff conflicts between Canada and the US have intensified, this agreement of delicately balanced compromises has been on rough water.
The webinars have become regular events since the AIP was announced. Around 100 or far less treaty geeks and regional advocates usually sit through the government’s earnest and carefully controlled messaging. Sometimes, it feels like watching paint dry. This particular webinar attracted nearly 600 registrations, prompting a waiting list to enter the zoom-room. It was well worth the time of anyone standing in line.
The BC government cabinet minister responsible for the treaty portfolio, Adrian Dix, spoke early on about how Canada’s negotiators were preparing for “any” action in response to the tariff war, while at the same time reminding the rapt audience of bi-partisan, international support for the agreement, in process since 2014. He also issued a stern reminder that the AIP is not a legal document; that only ratification from both countries can confirm that.
We certainly are not there yet.
“We are going to stay with it,” he said, with two jaunty paper Canadian flags attached to his desk in the background. And then, more optimistically, he said, “We think we’re going to get there, eventually.”
In all my experience of public discussions of the treaty since the curiosity bug bit me in around 2010, I’ve never heard any politician on either side of the border speak as passionately, yet reasonably, about this treaty. I have, however, heard that tone coming from American tribal organizations and leadership. Indigenous people have long understood how to balance a firm heart with a sharp mind. They can summon the patience to hold tension until compromise is reached.
For decades, the Upper Columbia United Tribes waited for government agencies to approve salmon re-introduction into the upper Columbia River, until their own hearts couldn’t stand it anymore. At that point, armed with rational scientific studies, they re-introduced the first tagged spawning ocean salmon into the Grand Coulee Dam reservoir, in 2019.
Everyone cheered when a few fish merrily pinged a buoy at the international boundary. The fish crossed into Canada without a passport, residency card or any permission from anyone. Then, they spawned.
At the inhospitable border
A few years later, their offspring were caught by Canadian fishermen, both up and downstream of the next dam (Hugh Keenleyside). This, thanks to a sometimes-open navigation lock put in place to allow log booms to pass. I think of those fish, feeling their way up the tail race current exiting from the dam. Fish waiting, then taking their moment when the lock swung opened.
Utterly remarkable.
This era of rising consciousness will not be stopped by one person, or even by one ill-informed faucet metaphor. Mr. Dix seemed at times at times to almost be speaking from a place not of force and authority, but authentic power. It’s a power anyone close to the river has felt. Once things get going, natural systems pulse with life again, and we are all entranced. I remain strangely, irrationally optimistic that the forces of government, hydro-power greed, and human autocracy will eventually feel the resistance of another current of power, one that drip-drip-drips its way to a new world order. I’m willing to wait.
Meanwhile, enjoy watching the first salmon re-enter the water above Grand Coulee Dam since 1941.
Hi Eileen,
Lovely post, as ever, and with the optimism it deserves, so we don’t forget these higher goals and ideals of restoring right relationship between people and the earth, people and people. Thank you.
Thank you for this update. I can only hope that we (the USA) get beyond the current craziness so we can focus on getting salmon up Lake Roosevelt into British Columbia, our friends to the north. I would love that to happen in my lifetime.