Friday, December 29, 2000 East Coast natives expect more trouble in fisheries FREDERICTON (CP)- With no resolution to a summer-long native fishing dispute that saw shots fired, lobster boats confiscated and charges laid, the defiant people of Burnt Church are bracing for another season of confrontation with Ottawa. The northeastern New Brunswick reserve was one of two Mi'kmaq and Maliseet communities in Quebec and Atlantic Canada that refused to sign one-year fishing agreements with the federal government last year. And the Miramichi Bay, where federal fisheries officers and native fishermen clashed almost daily throughout the summer, quickly became a symbol of the unfinished business between Canada and its aboriginal people. But more than two months after the last traps were pulled out of the bay by natives, peace on the fishing grounds is no closer for 2001. Adding to the pressure is the March expiration of the one-year agreements reached with the remaining 32 bands. Federal negotiators are preparing for a new round of deal-making in accordance with a 1999 Supreme Court of Canada ruling that said Mi'kmaqs and Maliseets have a treaty right to earn a moderate livelihood from hunting, fishing and gathering. Federal Fisheries Minister Herb Dhali-wal says he'll be seeking longer-term arrangements with the East Coast bands - agreements that extend for at least three years. "I'm not interested in dealing with this every year and I don't think any fisheries minister would want to deal with it year by year and that's why we need a longer-term plan," he said. Mike Belliveau of the Maritime Fishermens Union, which represents non-native fishermen, thinks it may be time for a new minister of fisheries. "Generally speaking, native affairs have been on the back burner in this country," Belliveau says. "It seems to me it requires a senior minister to take hold of the file and start it moving. A new fisheries minister probably makes sense at this stage." Earlier this month, the Indian Brook reserve filed suit against Ottawa for seizing its boats and fishing equipment last summer in the Bay of Fundy.