Earlier this week, Arizona environmental quality department director Steve Owens invited the Navajo Nation to become the first tribe to join the western climate initiative. So will the Campbell administration - which has committed to developing a new relationship of respect, recognition and reconciliation with British Columbia's aboriginal people - be extending a similar invitation to provincial First Nations leaders? Well, British Columbia Assembly of First Nations regional chief Shawn Atleo, a member of the premier's climate team, thinks the government should.

In an interview with Public Eye, Mr. Atleo stated, "I could not for a moment expect to be able - as one climate action team meber - speak for all 203 First Nations. And I would - but I haven't had an opportunity - express to the premier that there be a formal involvement of First Nations in the climate change initiative. I think it's fundamental that it be government-to-government basis and that the First Nations in British Columbia be afforded the same recognition that the Navajo Nation have been afforded."