DRIPA ACTION PLAN

DRIPA ACTION

PLAN Action was needed, but is the plan bold, bureaucratic or both?

MERLE ALEXANDER

B.C. First Nations sought an action plan that would bring a reckoning to colonialism, deliver the tectonic change that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) embodies and be the knockout punch to racism within the law. No small task — I guess we needed capes, not Zoom meetings.

The fact is that implementing UNDRIP is a marathon relay race, not a sprint for today’s best and brightest. Reversing colonialism will take generations, and B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) Action Plan is the beginning, not the end.

So, is the Action Plan bold? Yes, it is bold enough. The 89 actions will take more than the existing capacity within Indigenous right-holders to deliver true change in five years. We are mighty but we do not have the thousands of lawyers, consultants and technicians of our Crown “partners.”

Is the Action Plan bureaucratic? Yes, it is bureaucratic aplenty. Indigenous Peoples are “co-developers” of UNDRIP implementation, but we are not yet “co-drafters.”

As a lawyer, I am drawn to the legal reform initiatives. There are some exceptional commitments to modernize legislation, including: ■ DRIPA s.7 (2.4 & 2.5); ■ Environmental assessment – cumulative impacts (2.6); ■ Emergency Management legislation (2.7); ■ Forest legislation (2.10); and ■ Mineral Tenure Act (2.14).

On DRIPA section 7, we are experiencing inertia that prevents the mandating of consent-based decision-making. You can expect that these two actions will deliver a broader opening (hopefully a global opening) of the enabled consent-based negotiations that need to occur in B.C. So instead of the lone Tahltan Nation’s environmental assessment consent agreement, there will dozens of negotiations throughout the province. This single action alone could empower right-holders where it counts.

On environmental assessment, instead of the tunnel vision assessment of single approvals, B.C. will need to honour the Blueberry River First Nation legal victory and consider the cumulative effects of industrial activity within a region. We need to track the saturation of projects that are like death by a thousand cuts in our territories. Also, you can predictably expect that First Nations will want to see consent as a legal requirement, instead of consensus as an aim.

The B.C. government's DRIPA Action Plan was released in March

2022 • PROVINCE OF BC/FLICKR

On emergency management, this is an area where co-jurisdiction is a must. First Nations have survived and flourished in their territories through fires, floods and other disasters because of their applied Indigenous Knowledge. If we are all to be qualified to rise to the climate change challenges before us in this province, we must do it as true partners. First Nations know how to act immediately to protect their Peoples because we have always been here to stay.

On forestry law, we are beyond the “war in the woods” with First Nations and environmentalists on one side, and Crown and industry on the other. First Nations are empowered economic participants in the forestry industry; they have negotiated a variety of shared decision-making models and stand alone in Canada as revenue-sharing parties. Consultation obligations were the impetus for this progress. Now, an era of mutual consent for: (1) all governmental approvals and (2) all First Nations-industry relationships must map the next generation of change. B.C. must make it a legal requirement to have an impact benefit agreement between forestry companies and First Nations. The Crown must not continue to approve tenures and licenses, or make other strategic decisions in forestry regulation, without mutual consent. Because this is such a substantive topic, it may be worthy of an Indigenous/Royal Commission on forests.

Mineral tenure reform was a late addition to the Action Plan. It may be a response to the Gitxaaxla Nation’s judicial challenge that is arguing that the online tenure claim process breaches the duty to consult and is not consistent with UNDRIP. Mining in B.C. is highly vulnerable to legal uncertainty and B.C. must act smartly and swiftly if we are going to avoid an investment exodus. Personally, I think there is a real necessity to bring the most affected right holders and stakeholders together to find solutions. First Nations that have proposed or have active exploration and mining, as well as established and prospective proponents, have real and tangible rights at stake. The model of technical expert panels that create legal reform will be appealing. The most important aspect is that First Nations be viewed as partners to this process. We are partners in impact benefit agreements, and partners in government-to-government agreements — we must be co-drafters of mining reform.

So it is in this vein that I accept the Action Plan as an extraordinary concrete beginning. No other jurisdiction in Canada or internationally is committing to this degree of UNDRIP implementation. I see the Action Plan as the foothold for tremendous legal reform and truth telling. I believe in the powerful advocacy of First Nations leadership. I know we are relentless diplomats and negotiators, and that we achieve great things.

Merle Alexander is a member and Hereditary Chief of Kitasoo Xai’xais

First Nation, and principal of the Indigenous Law Group at Miller Titerle

+ Co • SUBMITTED

Merle Alexander is a member and hereditary chief of Kitasoo Xai’xais First Nation on the mid-coast of British Columbia. He is principal of the Indigenous Law Group at Miller Titerle + Co.

THE WORLD NEEDS INDIGENOUS WORLDVIEWS

Indigenous Knowledge should be applied to prevent effects of climate change

CHIEF JOE ALPHONSE

What can businesses gain by building partnerships with Indigenous Peoples and communities? I have long advocated that these partnerships must be equal and meaningful, relying on the core foundation of an understanding of perspectives and worldviews. “I see where you are coming from,” is often said — but is it true? Let’s take climate change, for example. In order to understand the implications of climate change on Indigenous Peoples, business must first understand the reality that Indigenous Peoples are faced with.

We are Tilhqot’in People, which means People of the River. The rivers that flow through our territory have supported our people for centuries. The annual migration of salmon was so predictable to our people that we knew, to the day, when to be on the rivers to dipnet and collect fish for smoking or drying.

The implications even today of not having salmon stored in our homes or freezers are devastating. It means that we must turn to other sources of food, like deer and moose. If the opportunity to hunt is not available, we must buy meat in the grocery store. With ongoing inflation rates and food prices — this has never been affordable for the Tilhqot’in People. My community alone has a Community Well-Being index of 51 out of 100, while the regional district surrounding it is at 72 (according to the 2016 census). Less food in the rivers and lands means increased poverty for our people. Increased poverty means increased social and cultural issues. A threat to salmon is a direct threat to the well-being of our people.

A reality without salmon seemed nearly impossible 30 years ago. However, layering climate change on top of already stressed species will have irreparable impacts. Warmer river temperatures mean less oxygen for the salmon in a time when they are migrating. An increase in wildfires means an increase in floods, which send sediment into waterways, cementing over spawning grounds. And the list goes on.

As Tilhqot’in, we have long known that every part of a resource must have a use. When an animal is used for food, all parts of the animal are used, from the bones to the hide to the meat. We do not have the problem of animal waste because we have uses for all the parts. For millennia, the Tsilhqot’in tradition has been to honour the Spirit of the living beings that have given up their lives so that Tsilhqot’in People can survive and thrive through the generations. In order to honour the Spirits of the animals, we use every part of them, as well as apply our traditional values of only taking what we need.

So, what is it that businesses can gain by building partnerships with Indigenous Peoples and communities? Businesses can gain an increased level of understanding of the Indigenous worldviews, and ways of being and knowing. This can lead to out-of-the-box thinking and innovative solutions that can provide the competitive edge that businesses so often seek out.

In order to prevent catastrophic damage from climate change, Indigenous Knowledge needs to be applied to the solutions put forward by industry and businesses. For too long, Indigenous Peoples and our knowledge systems have been intentionally left out and in some cases legislated out from the mainstream. I believe that we are all feeling the impacts of this, and the evidence is the global climate emergency that is facing us all. Industry and businesses have the opportunity to step up to the plate and show some leadership by creating meaningful partnerships with Indigenous Peoples and communities, and include their knowledge systems in their lines of business. The time is now.

Nits’il in (Chief) Joe Alphonse, O.B.C., is Tribal Chair of the Tŝilhqot’in National Government.

IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND THE IMPLICATIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, BUSINESS MUST FIRST UNDERSTAND THE REALITY THAT INDIGENOUS PEOPLES ARE FACED WITH

Photo of Musqueam foreshore, by Barbershop Films

Building meaningful relationships towards a strong and shared future

The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority is working to create meaningful and long-term relationships with Indigenous communities whose traditional territories and treaty lands intersect the lands and waters of the Port of Vancouver. In 2021, we were pleased to sign two historic relationship agreements with the Musqueam Indian Band and Tsawwassen First Nation.

Building relationships with Indigenous communities is not only part of our federal mandate, it allows us to learn from their expertise, giving us a more holistic view of port lands and waters. This expertise can assist us in managing projects more

Learn more at portvancouver.com/indigenous-relations