Northern Beat Round Up

Hi all,

A quick note to get you up-to-speed on our latest slew of stories and podcasts.

With two more weeks of the legislative session—how much crazier can it get?! In this province, it might be tempting fate to ask.

Variables aside, by the end of session, we will know the following:

BC Conservatives will have a new leader.

After years of hype, defensiveness and some really bad videos about what a great event it will be, the BC NDP government will finally reveal the cost of hosting FIFA’s World Cup in Vancouver.

The province will have existed nearly six months in political limbo despite the looming “significant legal liabilities” Eby said were created by last year’s BC Court of Appeal Gitxaala decision (which struck down the Mineral Tenure Act, thanks to DRIPA).

There will be no veritable action on amending DRIPA. Because, in the face of what Eby called the “existential threat” fuelled by the Gitxaala decision, and on the advice of his attorney general, no less, they have decided to… (drum roll)… stand down. The Eby government will now spend six months talking with a small group of elite Indigenous leaders to seek a more “durable solution,” whatever that means.

It could indicate our way of life is no longer under threat of destruction (whew). More likely, they decided the fury of Indigenous leaders’ thunder and the perils posed by their threats of staging mass protests and blocking major projects was the greater danger… to society or their political careers, we’re not sure.

This may be a great time for all of us to go Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and wipe our memories so we can enjoy spring and summer without the downer of an unresolved existential threat in the hands of a weak, disinterested government weighing us down.

If you all suddenly stop reading Northern Beat, I’ll know you took my advice.

Happy Victoria Day everyone and thanks for supporting independent journalism.

—Fran

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The largest landowner in the Richmond area affected by the Cowichan Tribes’ Aboriginal title victory is appealing to the Prime Minister for help.

Montrose Properties has asked Mark Carney to reinstate the long-deployed argument— abandoned by the Canadian government under former attorney general Jody Wilson-Reybould—that existing private property extinguishes Aboriginal title, and to join Montrose in its attempt to re-open the BC Supreme Court trial, writes Rob Shaw. [Read More]

In yet another new case before BC courts citing the province’s contentious Declaration Act, an Indigenous community is alleging the Crown failed in its constitutional duty to consult and accommodate them when BC Hydro only offered a standard renewal rate for the privately generated electricity it produces.

If the court rules against BC Hydro, forcing it to ‘insulate’ Indigenous investment from market risk, the extra costs may get passed onto ratepayers, writes former BC Utilities commissioner, Richard Mason. [Read More]

The success of Harrop-Procter Community Forest is challenging the old volume-based models of industrial forestry. It’s run as a co-op, with a volunteer board of directors overseeing a small sawmill and a logging operation on 11,000 hectares of Crown land. It is a model for a local decision-making, writes journalist and half-time resident of the Kootenays, Jeff Davies. [Read More]

BC’s cattle ranchers are joining the court fight against the NDP government’s controversial Declaration Act as an intervenor in a court case that, if successful, could strike down the law entirely as unconstitutional. The lawsuit alleges DRIPA fails to balance Indigenous and non-Indigenous rights, it exceeds the province’s constitutional jurisdiction, and breaches people’s democratic rights. Rob Shaw has the story. [Read More]

Ranchers are at the bleeding edge of DRIPA’s land-use imbroglio. Their livelihoods depend on grazing tenures and water rights on Crown land. That’s one reason the province’s cattlemen are throwing their considerable weight behind a lawsuit that could radically change the course of reconciliation in the province. The other reason is their concern that DRIPA is a direct threat to BC’s governance structure. BC Cattlemen’s president Werner Stump sat down with Northern Beat to talk about why his organization has joined the DRIPA legal fray and more. [Listen to the podcast]

The BC government is heading for another showdown over the Heritage Conservation Act after the latest revisions to the controversial law were soundly rejected by municipalities, the construction sector, developers and the business community. The groups are all calling on Premier David Eby’s administration to step back from its third attempt at forcing through reforms to archeological rules they say will slow down housing construction, and add both uncertainty and delay to building approvals. “It just seems like they’re really interested in moving forward on this without considering the feedback,” Cori Ramsay, president of the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM), told Rob Shaw. [Read More]

Todd Stone is speaking for an embattled industry.

The CEO and president of the Association of Mineral Exploration joined our podcast to share how his members are faring under BC Premier David Eby’s handling of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA)—in a couple of words: not good. [Listen to the Podcast]

Overnight, the Cowichan Tribes court decision upended public perception of Indigenous reconciliation when it recognized Aboriginal title over private property in Richmond. But three years earlier the signs were already there when Vancouver city council adopted its own radical strategy to reconcile with regional Indigenous groups, and changes have already begun rolling out, writes former Vancouver councillor Gordon Price. [Read More]

Aboriginal law expert Geoffrey Moyse sat down with us to talk about the end goals of DRIPA and UNDRIP, what’s different about the first treaties ratified under them (introduced as legislation last month), and what it means to be co-governed by an elite group of Indigenous leaders without a public mandate who represent less than three per cent of the province’s population. [Listen to the Podcast]

Feedback to Fran@Northernbeat.ca

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Correction: The BC Appeal Court Gitxaala decision struck down the Mineral Tenure Act (not DRIPA !).