The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs has laid off four staff members amid federal funding cuts that Grand Chief Stewart Phillip says are “hamstringing” the group’s efforts to work toward resolutions on specific land claims.

“This is a situation that is reverberating right across the country,” Phillip told the Straight by phone. “The research associations right across Canada are deeply alarmed and gravely concerned about how drastic these cuts have been.”

As of April 1, UBCIC’s specific-claims research budget was reduced by 40 percent, research director Jody Woods said in an interview.

According to Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, the backlog of specific claims at the assessment stage has been reduced from 541 to 92.

But Woods said there are “hundreds and hundreds of claims” that have yet to be filed. She indicated that in some cases containing multiple allegations, the federal government is accepting only one part of the claim for negotiation, which is resulting in First Nations splitting allegations into multiple claims.

“They have embarked upon an approach of take-it-or-leave-it offers,” Phillip said, “and then they close off the claim, which puts the party in a position of starting the whole process over, or in some instances what Canada will do is there will be a partial approval of a very small aspect of a particular claim and the balance is rejected.

“In their record-keeping, they write the claim off as being dealt with, and then they make public statements how the backlog has been greatly reduced, but in fact the backlog has increased because it creates a situation where you have to refile multiple claims.”

Phillip added that major conflicts have resulted from unresolved specific claims.

“You have the potential for land-use conflict, such as what happened at Oka and Ipperwash, with unresolved claims, because what happens in those instances is third parties attempt to move in and develop those lands,” he said.