Implementing UNDRIP in British Columbia in a Post-Yahey Context: What to Expect After the Yahey v. BC Litigation (S151727) and the Agreement on Industrial Development and Cumulative Effects Management

Abstract

Almost two years after the ground-breaking verdict that the Supreme Court of British Columbia issued in the context of the Yahey v. BC litigation, on January 18, 2023, the Province of British Columbia signed a historic agreement with Blueberry River First Nation (BRFN) to address the cumulative effects of industrial development on the meaningful exercise of Treaty 8 rights in the Nation’s traditional territory while establishing collaborative approaches to land and resource planning. At the same time, the Province concluded agreements with other Treaty 8 First Nations (Doig River, Fort Nelson, McLeod Lake, Prophet River, Saulteau and West Moberly First Nations) concerning cumulative effects management, land planning and resource exploitation. These agreements have been praised as ground-breaking steps towards a new relationship that Government and Industry are eager to build with First Nations while healing the land and ensuring certainty for Industry to carry on resource development in British Columbia. This happens as the Province and the Federal Government move forward with their action plans to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (hereafter UNDRIP) at the provincial and federal levels. It also comes at a time of significant challenges British Columbia must face, between new First Nations development projects (i.e., the Cedar LNG project) that the Province is actively supporting and recent litigations initiated by some First Nations to see UNDRIP adequately implemented in the BC legal framework (i.e., the trial initiated by Gitxaala and Ehattesaht First Nations concerning the lack of consultation regarding how BC grants mineral claims).