CHARBONNEAU – DRIPA problems kicked down the road as the glow fades

 IT WAS A FEEL-GOOD moment when The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) was passed into BC law in 2019.

 All parties unanimously agreed to align provincial laws with the standards set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

 The glow has gone off DRIPA.

 Now it threatens to change laws in B.C. A majority of MLAs think it should be amended or eliminated.

 Despite attempts by B.C. Premier Eby to do so, changes are proceeding in fits and starts.

 Eby is strongly against DRIPA as it now stands but can’t seem to get the timing right.

 “Too much rides on it, in terms of our province’s prosperity and certainty going forward,” Eby said.

 First, the premier was willing to make changes to DRIPA a vote of confidence. His government would fall if the legislation wasn’t passed.

 Then he realized he was one vote short. First Nations MLA Joan Phillip, who is the wife of Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, told him she could not bring herself to vote for the amendments.

 The BC Conservatives are also in a hard place. They want contradictory things: They want the NDP government defeated and they want DRIPA weakened or gone.

 The BC Conservatives also have First Nations supporters in their caucus. A’aliya Warbus is the most prominent of them. And while Peter Milobar does not identify as First Nations himself, his wife, children, and grandchildren do.

 Milobar is BC Conservative MLA for Kamloops Centre and leading candidate to head the party.

 B.C.’s First Nations oppose changes to DRIPA, and why not? As it now stands, DRIPA can be used in court to challenge or strike down provincial laws.

 A case in point concerns a court ruling on mineral rights in B.C.  Last December, the British Columbia Court of Appeal ruled in favour of the Gitxaala First Nations and struck down B.C.’s long-standing “free entry” mineral staking system where companies could register claims online without prior consultation.

 The court ruled that the system violated DRIPA principles such as  consultation and consent before resource development.

 The government of B.C. must now rewrite the law to be consistent with DRIPA.

 No wonder Premier Eby is so strongly against DRIPA as it stands. Through the courts, it has been transformed into a powerful legal tool and created the possibility that many B.C. laws could be challenged.

 Todd Stone also has problems with DRIPA. He’s the president of the Association for Mineral Exploration (AME) and former Kamloops MLA.

 Stone told the 2026 Kamloops Exploration Group Conference & Trade Show that would-be foreign investors sit on their wallets.

 “Because there’s this uncertainty around, at the end of the day, who’s actually in charge, who’s the final decision maker, who signs off on a project and that’s mainly because of the DRIPA legislation,” Stone said.

 Stone was part of the unanimous vote in favour of DRIPA when the legislation was passed in 2019. He said that the AME and others in the sector also supported the move at the time.

 How the times have changed in just seven years. The feel-good warmth of embracing our First Nations has been replaced with buyer’s remorse.

David Charbonneau is a retired TRU electronics instructor who hosts a blog at http://www.eyeviewkamloops.wordpress.com.