Overview
- Premier David Eby said his government will draft changes to B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act rather than repeal it or recall the legislature now.
- The Court of Appeal ruled on Dec. 5 that B.C.’s mineral claims regime is inconsistent with UNDRIP and that DRIPA should be interpreted to give the UN declaration immediate effect in provincial laws.
- BC Conservative interim leader Trevor Halford formally urged an immediate recall to repeal DRIPA, pledging to forgo routine proceedings to pass repeal within days.
- Eby said amendments will take time and signaled he wants elected legislators—not courts—guiding alignment with Indigenous rights, while acknowledging a potential appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
- Business leaders joined calls for repeal over legal and economic uncertainty, while Indigenous leadership previously said the Declaration Act is legally binding and cannot be implemented unilaterally.