How a big win for a First Nation in B.C. could bring change for resource development in Canada

From a helicopter hovering more than 100 metres in the air, Blueberry River First Nations Chief Marvin Yahey surveyed his community's territory in northeastern British Columbia.

Looking over the vast landscape of trees, muskeg and rivers drenched in sun, Yahey pointed to sites that have been important to generations of his ancestors — like a lake where ingredients for traditional medicine could be gathered.

But more often during the flight, he gestured to the patchwork of development marking the landscape: roads, forestry cutblocks, pipelines, natural gas wells and facilities.

"Have you seen any moose?" he asked, turning to elder Jerry Davis, who was looking out a side window from the back of the aircraft.

"No," Davis said — a response he repeated to the same question near the end of the two-hour flight.

Asked about the scene later, Yahey said it was "extremely frustrating" to see so much development in the traditional territory. 

"To have an aerial view, it's mind boggling — but that's the activities we've lived with for many generations," he said.

It was similar frustration that led to a lawsuit six years ago — and to what's been called a precedent-setting court decision that could have implications for resource development elsewhere in Canada.

This summer, a B.C. Supreme Court judgment agreed with Blueberry River's 2015 claim that years of extensive industrial development in the region violated the Treaty 8 rights of the Blueberry River First Nations.

The Court said the province failed to maintain the nation's rights to hunt, fish and trap without interference. While no single project had a devastating effect on the community, the court said the cumulative impact of a series of projects limited the nation's ability to maintain its rights.

The ruling also gave the province six months to work with Blueberry River to improve land management and the permitting process to respect the nation's rights under the treaty. Those discussions are ongoing.

"What's left to be negotiated is how we deal with applications for development going into the future, land protection, land management in the future," said Maegen Giltrow, a lawyer for the Blueberry River First Nations. 

She said Blueberry River does have decision-making power now over the land "because developments that will further infringe, pursuant to the court's direction, can't proceed without Blueberry's involvement and consent."

The outcome of talks with the province will be significant for Blueberry River First Nations and northeast B.C., but the case has also seized attention in other jurisdictions.