VANCOUVER — Are you confused by the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act and the Eby government’s shifting position on it? You’re not alone.
The Western Standard has produced the two charts tracking Premier David Eby’s plunging commitment to legislative changes to the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act during the spring 2026 session to help readers better understand the chaos.
A moment that perfectly captured the frustration many British Columbians feel over Premier Eby’s confusing shifts on DRIPA came during Monday’s news conference. When Eby remarked that he “would’ve liked to have been right the first time,” veteran Vancouver Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer shot back: “How about the fifth time?”
Here is a visual aid to help readers understand how those five consecutive climb-downs unfolded in rapid succession.
The vertical scale tells the whole story at a glance. The dashed zero line in the middle is the tipping point, or 0. Anything below it, down to -10, means total surrender — no legislation at all this spring. The top of the graph, up to +10, is full-throated, unequivocal commitment to passing changes this spring session.
That’s where the Eby government’s position began on April 1, when Eby declared DRIPA changes “non-negotiable,” an unequivocal opening stance represented right at the very peak of the chart — a solid +10 deep in the green zone.
Just one day later, the first climb down was in sight after Eby had a reportedly “tense meeting with First Nations leaders.”
In response to the “tense meeting,” permanent amendments to DRIPA were scaled down by Eby to only temporary suspension of certain sections, as the line starts its steady slide downward.
That’s climb-down one.
By mid-April, the line has dropped further. This is when the Eby government loudly considered making a DRIPA suspension bill a confidence motion — opening the possibility of snap election if it were to fail to secure a majority of votes in the legislature.
In attempting to wrap one’s mind around the Eby government’s seemingly panicked approach to DRIPA — including the willingness to stake the entire minority government on it — it helps to have some background on why many have accused the legislation of “paralyzing” British Columbia’s economy.
Relatively uncontroversial at the time, DRIPA was passed unanimously in 2019. The bill was well-intentioned in its original form, but has since been referred to as the equivalent of “legal malware.”
The turning point came with the December 2025 ruling by the BC Court of Appeal in the Gitxaała case. While the immediate dispute concerned the province’s mineral claims staking system, the decision had far broader implications.
The province’s highest court ruled that DRIPA, along with the related 2021 amendments to the Interpretation Act, is now justiciable.
In plain terms, this means anyone can take the government to court, and a judge can decide whether any law in British Columbia aligns with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples — also known as, "UNDRIP." If a law falls short, the court can order the Eby government to fix it.
Legal experts have warned that this could extend to permitting, tenures, environmental assessments, water licences, forestry approvals, energy projects, pipelines, renewable energy developments, and agricultural leases on Crown land — essentially any government decision grounded in provincial statute.
This court decision came as a profound shock to the BC NDP government.
Incredibly, it would appear that the lawmakers who passed DRIPA never anticipated that the courts—whose job it is to interpret the laws they enact—would actually take them seriously.
That shock explains why the Eby government was initially prepared to treat proposed changes to DRIPA as a confidence matter, risking the survival of its minority government.
And this is precisely where climb-down three began.
Put simply, Eby did not have the votes he needed. Even amongst his own caucus, some NDP MLAs were opposed to amending or even suspending DRIPA, forcing the premier to go back to the drawing board.
In the days that followed, leaked media reports began to hint at a modest uptick in positivity inside the NDP around DRIPA. By Sunday morning, internal discussions and media briefings indicated the bill would be tabled the next day. Government sources projected a renewed sense of readiness to move forward.
But the optimism proved short-lived. Late Sunday afternoon, the government abruptly reversed course once more.
In a brief statement, and to the shock of many, the premier’s office confirmed it would not be introducing legislation to suspend or amend DRIPA — or the related provisions in the Interpretation Act — during the spring session.
The plan to table the bill on Monday was scrapped entirely.
While speaking to reporters on Monday about DRIPA, a dejected-looking Eby acknowledged the missteps. “I certainly would’ve liked to have been right the first time,” he said. “This is one of the hardest files I’ve ever worked on.”
And yet, in less than 24 hours, the BC Premier plunged from the high-water mark of "non-negotiable" resolve on DRIPA to the bottom of the ocean.