Overview
- Government house leader Mike Farnworth said Monday the bill to pause parts of B.C.’s Indigenous rights law will not be introduced this week and will no longer be a confidence vote.
- The shift followed NDP MLA Joan Phillip saying she could not support the measure, a blow to a government that holds only a one-seat majority and sought to avoid triggering an early election.
- Premier David Eby argues the change is needed because a December Court of Appeal ruling in the Gitxaała case interpreted the law to immediately incorporate the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, opening the door to broad legal challenges to provincial statutes.
- First Nations political organizations condemned the proposed pause as a serious setback, and the government now says it will consult further, seek support from opposition and independent MLAs, and consider an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
- DRIPA was passed unanimously in 2019 to align B.C. law with UN Indigenous rights, and Eby had proposed pausing key sections for up to three years as the province also reassesses its mineral-claims system at the heart of the Gitxaała decision.