Vaughn Palmer: DRIPA Troubles Drag Down David Eby's Government
Opinion: The political risks of delaying action were on display Tuesday in the latest opinion poll from the independent Angus Reid Institute.
VICTORIA — Premier David Eby found himself on the defensive again this week over his decision to leave the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (DRIPA) unchanged for now. The latest controversy involves Indigenous tribes in Alaska and Washington citing the DRIPA legislation to challenge mining projects in British Columbia.
“It’s not a surprise to me that the tribes would also now argue DRIPA,” Eby told reporters Monday. “But it’s not the source of the obligation of B.C. government’s responsibilities to them.” The cross-border challenges are grounded in a 2021 Supreme Court of Canada finding that recognized rights for Indigenous nations whose territory predates and overlaps the establishment of the Canada-U.S. boundary.
Yet Eby also acknowledged the impact of last December’s B.C. Court of Appeal decision to overturn the province’s Mineral Tenure Act as incompatible with the principles of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. “The court of appeal decision around DRIPA doesn’t assist us in any of this,” said the premier. “It is one more reason why we think it’s in the interests of First Nations in B.C. as well as the provincial government, to get clarity around what was intended under the Act — an orderly process of working together, rather than a court-recognized set of rights. My hope is we’ll be able to get to that place. We’re having those conversations now.”
For much of the year, Eby claimed an “urgent” need to clarify the Act to head off DRIPA-related challenges to other provincial laws. As recently as April 13, he said there were already 20 such cases before the courts. On the morning of Sunday, April 19, he was still planning to suspend DRIPA to head off further challenges. He abandoned the plan later that day in the face of a threat of “collective resistance” from Indigenous leaders and on advice from Attorney-General Niki Sharma. Instead, the two sides will discuss options in advance of the fall session of the legislature.
Eby’s flip-flop figured prominently when the B.C. Conservatives challenged the government over the cross-border DRIPA filings during question period Monday. Opposition leader Trevor Halford asked: “The premier has said numerous times that there was an extreme urgency to deal with DRIPA this session because of, he said, 20 cases that were currently before the courts.” Was the challenge to B.C.’s Eskay Creek mine from a group of Alaska-based tribes “one of the cases that the premier referenced?” Sharma replied that she “won’t talk about cases that are before the courts,” not denying that the Alaskan challenge was among the premier’s group of 20. She then attacked the Conservatives for raising money off the government’s fumbling of Indigenous reconciliation, as if that were a departure from protocol or precedent.
The political risks of delaying action were on display in the latest opinion poll from the independent Angus Reid Institute, which showed the B.C. Conservatives holding a 10-point lead over the NDP amid DRIPA uncertainty. The controversy continues to drag down the Eby government, with no clear resolution in sight.
