Timeline of History

2019 – A $33 million Vancouver Fraser Port Authority container inspection facility nears project completion. The facility assists Canada Border Services Agents in inspecting containers arriving through Deltaport.
2018 – Great West Life Realty oversees completion of a new 450,000 sq. ft.
logistics facility, naming global distribution giant Amazon as their anchor tenant.
2017 – TFN’s Farm School celebrates its two-year partnership with Kwantlen
Polytechnic University (KPU) by hosting a summer pig roast. The program
teaches sustainable agriculture and traditional indigenous food systems.
2016 – Tsawwassen Mills, one of the largest shopping centres in Canada, opens its 1.2
million sq. ft. of retail space to the public, with nearly 300,000 visitors arriving in the
first week. TFN completes the Highway 17 widening project necessary to support
access to Tsawwassen Lands.
2015 – TFN completes $27 million sewage treatment plant, which provides self-sufficiency and adds capacity to future infrastructure projects. Grand Opening takes place in March of the following year.
2014 – Three major projects announced on TFN’s industrial lands, including a large
warehouse facility, a container examination centre, and a cardlock truck fueling
facility. TFN also completes the largest real estate deal in the province – and
likely the largest non-resource agreement ever signed by a First Nation in B.C. –
by signing a 99-year lease with Ivanhoe Cambridge for Tsawwassen Mills.
2013 – A 25-year lease is signed on 155 hectares of agricultural land with three farms, ensuring TFN’s ongoing commitment to supporting local agriculture and food security.
2012 – Ground breaking on 42-lot subdivision called Tsawwassen Shores, a partnership
signed with Aquilini Development and the first of several residential developments
made possible through Treaty that will ultimately bring thousands of new residents
to Tsawwassen Lands. Tsawwassen Members vote in favour of leasing the commercial
lands for development of Tsawwassen Mills and Tsawwassen Commons.
2011 – New Neighbourhood Plan designates 110 hectares for commercial and residential development, providing the necessary future tax base for our government services.
2010 – TFN, the Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia jointly fund a $9 million servicing project near Deltaport Way, representing the first step towards
unlocking the economic potential of our Industrial Lands.
2009 – On April 3, 2009, the Tsawwassen First Nation implements its Final Agreement, and becomes self-governing. The existing Indian Act government is transitioned, and the first election of the new Legislature is called.

2007 – Treaty negotiations are finalized, the agreement is ratified, and a transition period is set.
2004 – In March, Chief Kim Baird formally signed the Agreement in Principle (AIP).
2003 – On Dec. 10 members of the Tsawwassen First Nation vote overwhelmingly to approve the AIP that could lead to the first urban treaty in the province.
2003 – On July 9, Tsawwassen and the provincial and federal governments initial the AIP.
1999 – TFN completes Stage 3 of the treaty process.
1998 – Tsawwassen successfully negotiates ‘Roberts Bank Back-up Lands Agreement,’ successfully preserving crown land for negotiations.
1996 – The last Residential School in Canada is finally closed.
1995 – TFN completes Stage 2 of treaty process.
1995 – We began construction of a new Longhouse on our reserve. Completed in 1997, the structure is used to practice and protect our culture and traditions. Activities inside include “namings,” memorials, winter dancing and feasts unique to Coast Salish peoples. Prior to this, it had been almost 50 years that our community had been without a Longhouse and we had to practice our culture ‘underground’.
1993 – The Tsawwassen First Nation enters a formal treaty-making process.
Between 1994 and 1996 we built Tsatsu Shores, a condominium development, as an economic-development initiative. We faced stiff opposition from government agencies and municipal politicians at every turn. When Delta refused to provide water and sewer for the development we were left with no option but to provide our own services. The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans unsuccessfully tried to prosecute us for building a tertiary sewage treatment and reverse osmosis water treatment plant – while, at the same time, the department permitted other governments to dump raw human waste and industrial sewage into the Fraser River, Boundary Bay, Burrard Inlet and the Strait of Georgia from dozens of outfall pipes.
1992 – B.C., Canada and the First Nations Summit establish the B.C. Treaty Commission to oversee treaty negotiations.

1973 – In the Calder Decision the Supreme Court of Canada splits on the question of aboriginal title.
1968 – Construction on the Roberts Bank Superport began. By 1983 it had become a 113-hectare island, with a B.C. Rail line running along the causeway. Operating around the clock, the facility handles 24 trains each day. Light and sound pollution – excessive noise and vibration – is a constant nuisance to the Tsawwassen people.
1960 – Aboriginal people on reserves are granted the right to vote in federal elections. The phase-out of Indian residential schools begins.
1958 – The BC Ferry Terminal construction is started. During causeway construction the B.C. government tore down our Longhouse. The terminal and causeway were expanded in 1973, in 1976 and again in 1991. The provincial government of the day did not bother to meaningfully consult with the Tsawwassen people. Today, more than 2.6 million cars and trucks drive the causeway every year.
1951 – Parliament repeals the provisions of the Indian Act that outlawed the potlatch and prohibited “land claims” activity.
1931 – The Native Brotherhood of B.C. is formed. Secret, underground discussions are launched to keep the Indian land question alive.
Despite these negative impacts, we have struggled to participate in Canadian society and its economy. Some of our members fought in World War I and World War II.
1927 – Ottawa prohibits Indians from organizing to discuss land claims.
1923 – Ottawa permits Indians to acquire commercial fishing licences.
1920 – Compulsory attendance of Indian children in schools is introduced.
1914 – Tsawwassen Chief Harry Joe submitted a petition to the McKenna McBride Commission then reviewing the province’s reserves. The Chief argued eloquently that the Tsawwassen people did not want to be forced into exile on a tiny reserve. His words went unheeded by the politicians of the day and, over time, aboriginal fishing and other rights were legislated away.
For the first half of the 20th century, Tsawwassen was largely ignored by everybody, except for a few bureaucrats. All of this would change starting in the 1950’s as commercial development and public infrastructure occurred. Ironically, this provided the basis for the development of a people with strong and committed leaders and a determination to overcome the many obstacles put in our way.
1906 – A representation of Coast Salish Chiefs went to England to fight for land claims.
1890 – About 40,000 acres of land surrounding us had been developed by our non-aboriginal neighbours.
1889 – The federal system of permits is introduced to govern commercial fishing. Indians are effectively excluded from commercial fishing.
1887 – Premier William Smithe said, “When the white man first came among you, you were little better than wild beasts of the field.” Little wonder that this kind of racism was soon translated into narrow policies that plunged the province into a century of darkness for the Tsawwassen and other First Nations.
1884 – The Indian Act is amended to outlaw cultural and religious ceremonies such as the potlatch – the major social, economic and political institution of the coastal peoples.
1881 – The first official survey of the Tsawwassen Indian Reserve is completed.
1878 – Canada begins to restrict traditional Indian fishing rights, making a new distinction between food and commercial fishing. The first census of Tsawwassen Indians is conducted.
1878 – Tsawwassen Reserve is confirmed by Commissioner Sproat.
1874 – Our reserve was expanded to 490 acres (198 hectares), still a postage stamp sized piece of land compared to our traditional territory.
1871 – Our Colonial reserve is formally established.
1870 – B.C. unilaterally denies existence of aboriginal title, claiming aboriginal people are too primitive to understand the concept of land ownership.
1860 – The St. Charles Mission is established in New Westminster. This is Tsawwassen First Nation’s first contact with the Catholic Church.
1858 – The Colony of British Columbia becomes official. Tsawwassen lands were pre-empted; settler families were given huge tracts of land.
Over the years, as the colony of British Columbia grew and prospered the Tsawwassen people – like other First Nations – were systematically stripped of their land, rights and resources. Simply put, our land was stolen.
1851 – The International Boundary between Canada and the United States is created, alienating Point Roberts from Tsawwassen Territory without consultation, without compensation.
1808 – The Simon Fraser expedition arrives at the mouth of the Fraser River.
Like many First Nations, after the arrival of Europeans our ancestors were devastated by epidemics of smallpox. Historians estimate that between 80 and 90 per cent of the Coast Salish were killed by the disease, decimating some Tsawwassen villages.
1791 – Spanish and English explorers arrive in the vicinity of Tsawwassen.
400–200 BC – The Tsawwassen First Nation people are by then well established in their traditional territory (as per documented proof from sites at Whalen Farm and Beach Grove).
2260 BC – Sites within our historic winter village confirmed by carbon dating.
7000 BC – According to archaeologists, human beings occupied the southwest coast of B.C.