VANCOUVER — The British Columbia NDP government is moving forward, but still behind closed doors, to reform its own Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, better known as DRIPA, after two recent court decisions that sided with First Nations on mining rights and Aboriginal title.According to the Canadian Press, Premier David Eby’s administration sent a confidential letter Monday to select First Nations leaders, along with proposed amendments marked “subject to cabinet confidence” and requiring non-disclosure agreements. The changes would replace DRIPA’s strong requirement that the province take “all measures necessary” to align B.C. laws with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.Instead, the draft language would commit the government only to “ongoing processes” of working “in consultation and co-operation with Indigenous peoples” to align select “priority” laws. The sweeping duty to ensure consistency across all provincial enactments would be narrowed, and the government would gain flexibility to issue a new action plan “at any time.”The rushed timeline is tight: a briefing for First Nations leaders is set for Wednesday, with feedback due by 4 p.m. Friday and a one-hour meeting with Eby, Attorney General Niki Sharma and Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation Minister Spencer Chandra Herbert scheduled for April 1.The proposals follow court rulings the NDP says went further than intended. A 2025 BC Court of Appeal decision found the province’s mineral claims regime inconsistent with DRIPA. Another recognized Cowichan Tribes’ Aboriginal title over land along the Fraser River, declaring certain federal and City of Richmond titles “defective and invalid.Eby has gone on record calling those court decisions "serious" and "profoundly serious.".Eby has publicly insisted that “British Columbians through their elected representatives” — not the courts — must remain in control of resource development and prosperity. He has described the decisions as placing too much at risk for the province’s economy and certainty.This brings Eby’s position on DRIPA in closer alignment with the Opposition, many of whom are asking for the legislation to be repealed altogether.First Nations leaders have pushed back strongly on calls to either repeal or water down DRIPA.The Union of BC Indian Chiefs passed a resolution in February calling on the government to publicly commit to leaving DRIPA unchanged. The First Nations Leadership Council and others have rejected amendments, arguing they would “undermine reconciliation” and create greater uncertainty.The Western Standard reached out to the Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation for comment on the proposed amendments and the closed-door consultation process but received no response, continuing a pattern of the BC NDP government growing increasingly secretive and opaque — particularly on indigenous relations and matters related to its own "reconciliation" policies.
