Until a last-minute deal with the First Nations Leadership Council on Sunday afternoon, Premier David Eby says he was fully prepared to introduce legislation to suspend parts of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) on Monday.
Instead, he was convinced to commit the B.C. government to jointly working with First Nations leaders to find a solution that resolves the legal jeopardy facing the province.
Otherwise, he would have had to try to push legislation through despite reports that he couldn’t muster the votes. And he would likely have damaged his government’s long-term relationships with First Nations, which were threatening to bog the province down with even more legal challenges should he proceed.
Instead of forcing the issue before the end of the spring session on May 28, he is extending the deadline to the start of the fall legislative session.
“We put a hold on the Declaration Act provisions, so that we would have the space to negotiate a more permanent outcome,” Eby told reporters at the legislature on Monday (April 20).
Eby credited Attorney General Niki Sharma for canvassing First Nations leaders throughout the province, and for ultimately convincing him not to introduce the legislation.
“I want to thank the attorney general for tapping me on the shoulder and creating space for this conversation to happen,” he said, adding this is “one of the most difficult files” he has ever worked on.
DRIPA is a 2019 bill that commits the province to aligning its laws with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a proclamation of the right to sovereignty for Indigenous people worldwide.
The bill was recently used in a court case to invalidate an existing B.C. law. But Eby, who helped craft DRIPA as attorney general, says it was intended to force the government to do this work, not allow the court to invalidate existing laws.
Since that decision was released in December, Eby has floated several plans to change the law, all of which were strongly opposed by many Indigenous leaders, including the First Nations Leadership Council.
On Sunday, the leadership council released an open letter to members of the legislature, warning that attempts to suspend DRIPA put the province in even more legal peril. At the time the letter was released, Eby was still expected to table legislation this week.
Interim B.C. Conservative Leader Trevor Halford says Eby’s capitulation amounts to allowing First Nations to co-govern.
“The fact of the matter is that the premier, whether he likes it or not, has to lead at some point,” Halford said.
Halford reiterated the Conservative position that DRIPA be repealed, full stop.
“This is a process that’s been flawed from the start, and unfortunately, we are now seeing this play out in the courtrooms,” he said.
B.C. Greens MLA Rob Botterell wants an all-party standing committee struck to cover issues related to DRIPA. As a lawyer, he has worked on many Indigenous relations cases. He says the major court cases always generate this level of controversy, with a fear of a huge, immediate impact.
“And then everybody waits and pauses and works out what the real implications are, and we work through it, and we move on,” he said.
Former Green Party MLA Adam Olsen, now a negotiator for the Tsartlip First Nation, said he believes there is a path forward to find a “middle ground.”
“Give some time and space for people to actually have conversations, and to be able to work through these complex issues in a way that is not in front of a bank of cameras with microphones and lights on,” he said.