VANCOUVER, B.C. – The B.C. government has signed a wide-ranging agreement with six coastal First Nations to promote economic development on the central and northern coast.

The Coastal Reconciliation Protocol features $25 million in federal-provincial funding for a new ferry terminal at Klemtu, shared decision-making on resource and land use, allocation of carbon-offset revenue from forests on First Nations’ traditional territory and revenue-sharing of commercial recreation permits.

Premier Gordon Campbell signed the protocol Thursday with leaders of the Gitga’at First Nation, Haisla Nation, Heiltsuk Nation, Kitasoo band, Metlakatla First Nation and Wuikinuxw Nation.

It’s the latest such deal between the province and an aboriginal group as two decades of treaty negotiations move at a glacial pace with dozens of First Nations.

Opposition last summer also derailed the province’s proposed Recognition and Reconciliation Act, aimed at forging what Campbell deems a new relationship with First Nations.

The premier told a room full of aboriginal leaders Thursday this protocol “will ensure lasting and comprehensive reconciliation with the coast First Nations by giving those First Nations a direct say in the decisions that impact their people.

Percy Starr, the Kitasoo’s longtime band manager, said the new ferry terminal will restore Klemtu’s regular transportation link to the rest of the province, enabling it to expand its aquaculture industry.

“The relationship that I’d like to see us develop is starting to take shape,” he said.

Campbell said the protocol ensures coastal First Nations’ inclusion in the new carbon economy, with opportunity “that drives social improvement in the lives of First Nations.”

Art Sterritt, executive director of Coastal First Nations, praised the agreement, which he said was achieved after a decade of effort to establish a new economic base on what coastal residents call the Great Bear Rainforest.

He credited the pragmatism of federal and provincial ministers and the work of a new generation of aboriginal leaders who refused to be handcuffed by legislation governing First Nations’ relationship with government.

“It takes a tremendous amount of courage in the legal framework that we’re operating in to move forward and sign off agreements,” Sterritt said.

Although dozens of First Nations have become involved in treaty talks with the provincial and federal governments since the early 1990s, only one treaty – with the Tswwassen First Nation south of Vancouver – is in effect, while another final agreement has been ratified.

Instead, the B.C. government has signed specific land use and economic deals with several First Nations.

The province has also had to regroup after aboriginal leaders withdrew support for the Recognition and Reconciliation Act, saying it didn’t go far enough in acknowledging aboriginal rights and title.

Speaking to reporters, Campbell said governments don’t have a “shining” history of responsible relationships with First Nations.

“I think the fact of the matter is you build trust one step at a time and you build trust where you have First Nations and communities that are willing to take that step,” he said.

“What we’ve done is we’ve said where there’s a willing partner we want to find the ways where we can get through.”

Sterritt said in an interview the real reconciliation that has to take place is between Crown and aboriginal title.

“This government sees the necessity of kind of reconciling those, making sure those two titles are able to co-exist and bring benefits to British Columbia at the same time,” he said. “They got it right.”

Sterritt, a former member of the B.C. Treaty Commission, said he spent 10 fruitless years at the table where government negotiators had no mandate to make agreements and First Nations were skeptical of signing something where they didn’t know the long-term implications.

That’s not the case with the type of deals announced Thursday, he said.

“What our people look at this as, is a way to incrementally build up that you may put a ribbon around at the end of the day and call it a treaty, if it works.”