B.C. pauses plans to amend Land Act
CBC
The provincial government says it will not move ahead with proposed amendments to the B.C. Land Act that would have shared decision-making power with First Nations.
"We need a bit more time to help make it work and bring people in," said Nathan Cullen, minister of water, land and resource stewardship.
"I think there's real energy within the broader B.C. community to do it."
The amendments were meant to enable agreements with Indigenous governing bodies to share decision-making over public land and bring the Land Act in line with the province's Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA).
DRIPA was passed unanimously in 2019 and establishes the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) as B.C.'s framework for reconciliation.
The province had expected to bring forward a draft bill of proposed changes in the spring.
"I worried greatly … that misinformation was dividing people, pitting neighbour against neighbour, First Nations against non-First Nations and that's not good for anybody," said Cullen.
B.C. Conservative Party leader John Rustad issued a news release Feb. 1 saying the proposed amendments would bring "sweeping changes."
B.C. Conservative Party president Aisha Estey told CBC's The Early Edition that the changes will "repeal business" and section 35 of the Constitution already "facilitates the process that we are supposedly trying to facilitate with these Land Act amendments."
"We disagree that six per cent of the population should have essentially a veto power over 95 per cent of the land," said Estey.
However, the First Nation Leadership Council and Cullen have said the amendments would not give First Nations veto power over Crown Land.
"I think there's some accountability, particularly from Mr. [Kevin] Falcon and Mr. [John] Rustad and the opposition who just knowingly spread things they knew not to be true," said Cullen.
B.C. Assembly of First Nations Regional Chief Terry Teegee said the decision to put amendments to the Land Act on hold is disappointing.
"I think this would have helped, you know our overall goal of really creating that space for true reconciliation," said Teegee, who previously told CBC the misinformation circulating about the proposed changes were "fear mongering at its worst" and a "threat to reconciliation."