Overview
- Elections BC granted in-principle approval to MLA Harman Bhangu’s initiative to repeal the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act and set a formal 90-day canvass that begins Oct. 26, 2026 with completed sheets due Jan. 25, 2027.
- Organizers must collect signatures from at least 10 percent of registered voters in each of B.C.’s 93 electoral districts and submit them by the deadline for Elections BC to verify, with failure in one district voiding the entire petition.
- Chief Electoral Officer Shipra Verma said the proposed repeal concerns provincial law and that any Crown duty to consult First Nations could be addressed later during the legislative review process.
- First Nations leaders and government ministers condemned the petition, saying its rhetoric is misleading and risks harming reconciliation and the economy, while the BC Conservatives argue DRIPA threatens private property and business certainty.
- DRIPA was passed unanimously in 2019 to bring B.C. law into line with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and controversy intensified after a December 2025 Court of Appeal ruling that directed provincial laws be read through DRIPA, which prompted calls for amendment or repeal.