One of my sources in the community has just informed me that a high-profile former B.C. Liberal politician is slated to take over the top position at the B.C. Treaty Commission.

I wasn't at the Chief Joe Mathias Centre in North Vancouver where the First Nations Summit is holding meetings until Friday.

But I've been told that Grand Chief Edward John and the current chief commissioner, Sophie Pierre, have both disclosed today that George Abbott will take over the position when Pierre's term expires next spring.

Abbott has not returned phone and email messages as of this writing to confirm the story.

He is president of Circle Square Solutions, a Victoria-based "policy and governance consulting firm".

Abbott was B.C.'s education minister from 2010 to 2012 and before that, he served five years as minister of health.

Prior to entering provincial politics in 1996, he was director and chair of the Columbia-Shuswap Regional District and served as a councillor in Sicamous.

In 2013, the Globe and Mail reported that Abbott had decided to try to obtain a PhD from the University of Victoria.

"More recently, he has shifted his focus to writing a 200-plus-page thesis on how the Tsay Keh Dene had their lands flooded out due to the construction of the W.A.C. Bennett dam in the 1960s and the impact of Canada’s division of powers between Ottawa and the provinces on aboriginal public policy," wrote the Globe's Ian Bailey. 

The B.C. Treaty Commission was created in 1992 to facilitate negotiations between First Nations and the federal and provincial governments. 

The First Nations Summit appoints two commissioners, and one each is appointed by the federal and provincial governments.

They must all agree on a chief commissioner.

Pierre, a former long-time chief of the St. Mary's Indian Band, became chief commissioner in April 2009.

The current B.C.-appointed commissioner is former union leader Dave Haggard and the federally appointed commissioner is Jerry Lampert, former president and CEO of the Business Council of B.C.

Dan Smith and Celeste Haldane are the two commissioners selected by the First Nations Summit.